Divine Interference
by blackbeltchic
Summary: An oracle decides to interfere, and this causes some problems for our slayer. Set summer between season 4 and 5, and then on!
1. Part One

Title: Divine Interference  
  
Author: The Crazy One!  
  
Summery: An oracle decides to interfere and this causes some problems for our slayer.  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing! I wish I did, and sometimes I dream . . . . . Not going there! (hee!)  
  
I don't even own the original idea, but I'm getting to that!  
  
Special thanks to:  
  
Jena (Krazie Slayer) for the story idea. I guess this could be considered payment, for helping with your story (A Gift From the Forgotten Day {great story! Check it out!})  
  
Additional notes:  
  
I am currently looking for someone of Scottish decent, or someone who can write a convincible Scottish accent. If you know anyone who would be willing to help me, or you yourself is willing to help, please email me. I seriously need the help, even though I am of Scottish decent myself!  
  
Well, that's about it. Here is the story. I have lots of it typed up, but a huge part is a Scottish character. So please, if you know ANYONE email me, or have them email me! Thank you very much!  
  
Story starts here:  
  
"This cannot be done!" She cried after the Champion of the Powers left.  
  
"There are other ways to keep it safe. He will not be her only demon lover." He tried to sooth her.  
  
"But her true love? No, he is the only one! Besides, she is getting close, in a year or so, she might already have it! He is the only one."  
  
"There are always other ways; the Monks know what they are doing. Have faith in our brethren, Ganymedia."  
  
"But to get her to protect it with her life? No, this has to be the only way, the only way she will accept it as part of her family."  
  
"But it'll never work. Stick to what we've been told. The Powers want us to do this as well, not just the vampire. Just let's do what has to be done, and not get involved."  
  
She glared at her mate, but stayed silent.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Author's Note: They're either taking summer courses, or the college started early! I miss counted! Lol!  
  
Nine months later:  
  
Buffy and Willow were walking to class, when a mild pain shot through Buffy's stomach. It wasn't much, not like an injury, but enough to double her over, gasping, until the pain passed. When she straightened, she looked into the concerned face of her best friend. She shrugged, having no clue what could have caused her pain.  
  
She waited a few minutes, but it had passed, and did not return, so she shrugged once more, In a slayer fashion, and they started walking once more to class.  
  
While walking back to her dorm, this time alone, the pain came again, making her lean against the wall in shock. The pain was so sharp and yet fleeting, she was so confused.  
  
After a few minutes the pain subsided, and she walked on. Once in her dorm, she took two naprozine, sure that the pain was muscle related. You weren't in the field she was in and not know when pain was muscle related. Then she went to get ready for her date with Riley.  
  
The naprozine did the trick, or seemed to anyway, until she woke up the next morning. She took some more naprozine, before Riley woke up, and noticed she was taking something. He would just worry. She hated taking pain relievers and other drugs, just because they made her feel more abnormal. To feel pain was to be human, yet lots of humans took drugs to dull their pain.  
  
"Hey. Good morning." He saw her leaning on the wall slightly. "Are you ok?" He asked, coming up behind her.  
  
"Yeah. Just muscle cramps." She turned and looked up at him through her eye lashes, a look that she knew drove him crazy. "I uh.." She shot her gaze to the floor, and then back up at him, "I started today."  
  
"Ah." He said, nodding his head. She wasn't lying directly, she had found a bit of blood, and she could think it was that, but only two weeks since the last time? And these definitely weren't menstrual cramps. She'd had enough to know the difference between these and those.  
  
~ * ~  
  
The next cramp came right after class.  
  
And it came with something totally unexpected.  
  
She was headed towards the bathroom, with Willow in tow, when it hit her; huge, amount of pain. And then a rushing sensation, and then her underwear was wet.  
  
"Oh, shit." Willow looked at her, concern etched on her face. "I think my water just broke." Willow's eyes grew large in shock.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"GANYMEDIA!" The voice rang through the hall, as he searched for her. "Why did you do that?"  
  
"Because it was the only way."  
  
"Now we are going to be seriously in trouble with the Powers, Ganymedia! How could you be so insensitive to let this happen?!"  
  
"How were they going to make it work, mess with her mind again? Just because she is mortal, doesn't mean that her mind can be tampered with! Every time memories are altered, it leaves a finger print, we both know this! And every time a new memory is added or tampered with, then the others are less likely to work! Especially on a slayer! She is a champion, not a play thing!"  
  
"But the monks will not have time-"  
  
"I've seen to it, they've known for quite some time, and all the necessary preparations have been made. Do not fret, my love, everything is taken care of." She laid a soothing hand on his arm, but he pulled it away.  
  
"I wish you could trust me, Ganymedia. We've been through this before."  
  
"If I had told you, you would have aborted it, we both know that. This was the only way. Now she shall accept it as her own, and think nothing of protecting it with her life."  
  
"I still wish you had confided in me. I must think on this, before I can think of forgiving your stupidity." He stalked from the room, as she turned to watch over the slayer. 


	2. Part Two

A/N: Ok, next chapter, there shall be some Scottish Dialogue, thanks to Doukeshi03!!!!!  
  
Thank you so much!  
  
And here's the next part! And all I can post before I get the Scottish ports worked out!  
  
~ * ~  
  
"H-how?!"  
  
"I don't know! I haven't known Riley for nine months! Well, I have, but we haven't been . . . . ." Willow nodded. They were on their way to the hospital. Willow had borrowed an acquaintance's car. Buffy gritted through another cramp, as Willow stopped for the red light.  
  
They were coming stronger and closer together now, and they still had no idea how this could happen.  
  
So, it hadn't been just stress. She had no inkling that she had been pregnant. She had thought the weight gain was from the extra late nights, not enough training and other physical activities, and bad eating habits; such as grabbing the last of the pizza instead of the low fat, low calorie yogurt. She had never thought this was possible.  
  
A wave of pain hit her again, momentarily interrupting her thoughts.  
  
She knew it wasn't Parker's, that had been September, almost eleven months ago. And it wasn't Riley's, they hadn't started sleeping together until only five months ago. Unless, of course, the baby was premature, but she could tell that she wasn't. She? How had she known that?  
  
Once they arrived at the hospital, she was ushered in, and whisked away, while Willow went to call Giles.  
  
"Giles, it's me, Willow. I'm at the Hospital with Buffy-"  
  
"Dear Lord, what happened? Is she alright?"  
  
"She's fine. Well, as fine as she can be- is someone else there?"  
  
"Riley. He thought Buffy might be over here. One second, Willow." She heard him telling the T.A in the background of where Buffy was.  
  
"No! Giles, she doesn't want him here!" Too late, she heard the door slam on his end. "Damn it Giles! She's in labor, and she had no clue she was pregnant, and it's not his!"  
  
"Oh, I can see the problem." She could almost hear him take off his glasses and start to clean them. "I shall be right there, ok, Willow? Hold tight." The phone was placed back into the cradle, and Willow sighed. Why was it always her that screwed things up?  
  
She didn't have time to worry about it now, as she asked directions to where Buffy was, and followed them.  
  
The slayer did exceptionally well, Willow thought. She was allowed into the room, once she had permission from Buffy, and the birth was like nothing she had ever seen before. Her hand hurt, a lot, and it currently had ice on it, slayers have excellent grips.  
  
The baby was a girl, and once the labor really got going, it only took two hours. Now Buffy lay in her room, tired, disheveled, sweaty, but she was holding her baby girl, and she was happy. Willow was so proud of her.  
  
Neither had heard from Giles or Riley, and Willow hoped Giles had convinced the soldier to go home, and he would call if he found out anything. Of course, now she just had to tell Buffy.  
  
And she did not take it too well.  
  
"What am I going to do, Will? I have no clue who's baby this is, besides mine, and I have no recollection of her being conceived!" The slayer was close to tears.  
  
"Maybe it's a spell, Buffy."  
  
"She doesn't feel like a spell, Will. She feels like mine. She feels like she belongs here." She shifted the baby a bit.  
  
"No, the memory. There are spells, that I've heard of, that can alter or erase memories, but you have to be very powerful, and assured. Messing with people's memories are tricky, and dangerous."  
  
"Willow, I don't care what you have to do, please help me figure this out! I can't go on- not knowing!" She shook her head, dazed.  
  
"W-what about Riley?"  
  
She sighed. "He's gonna know something's up. What do I tell him? How's he going to react to-I've been carrying a child around for nine months, a child that isn't his..And I didn't even know!"  
  
"We'll figure something out, don't worry, Buffy. Um, I'm gonna go check on something. I called Giles, so he's probably waiting. I'll be right back, though, ok?" She nodded and Willow left the room. She saw Giles in the waiting room and went to meet him,  
  
"H-how is she?"  
  
"Alright, considering. She's tired, and confused, but she's happy. I haven't seen her this happy since-since junior year, right before her birthday. Back when everything wasn't so messed up."  
  
"Is there any clue as to-"  
  
"The father?" she shook her head to reinforce the answer. "No. She definitely got pregnant after dating Parker, but she and Riley-not until after-after her birthday. And the baby's no help. Blond hair, blue eyes, like most babies her age."  
  
"I-it's a she? A-a girl?" Willow nodded, and he sighed. "I guess I should, ah, go give my congratulations."  
  
"Where's Riley?"  
  
"I sent him home. Told him we'd call once there was news. I suspect he won't be getting that call."  
  
"Not right now, anyway." She sighed, "Buffy has no recollection of- of ever conceiving her. I'm gonna do some research, maybe a spell or two, to try and figure this mess out. But-Giles, this is so confusing! I know Buffy well enough to know if she was lying about not knowing! She honestly has no clue! Even she wouldn't lie about something this important!" He had a flashback to a time where she had in fact lied about something similar in importance. Then he mentally shook it off.  
  
He followed her back the way she came. "oh!" She stopped, and went to the receptions desk. "Miss Buffy Summers does not want any information given out on her condition."  
  
"Are you family?"  
  
"Willow thought a moment, just a brief pause, before replying, "Yes." She already felt like the baby's aunt, and Buffy was the closest thing she had to family, closer even than her parents. "Is there any way that you could put a hold on all of her information? Condition, room number, everything. She can give that information to those that need to know herself." The nurse nodded." Thank you very much. Have a nice day." Willow gave the nurse a genuine smile, and the nurse couldn't help but return it. Then she continued on towards Buffy's room.  
  
"There. No unwanted visitors." Willow announced. "I had them put a hold on your info."  
  
"Hi, Giles." Buffy said, after acknowledging Willow's announcement.  
  
"How are you?"  
  
"Tired. Confused. Ecstatic. Did I mention tired?"  
  
"Yes, I believe you did." He smiled, a genuine smile, something he thought he couldn't manage in this situation. Everything was so confusing.  
  
"Not to mention sore."  
  
"I bet you are."  
  
"Would you like to hold her? She doesn't have a name yet, and no father to help me. I was sorta unprepared."  
  
"I'd be delighted to hold her." He carefully took the offered bundle of pink blankets. Willow peeked over his shoulder, and made little cooing noises at the bundle.  
  
"I was sorta thinking about Jenny. Maybe not as a first name," she hastened to add, "But middle name. What do you think?"  
  
Giles was taken aback. "Uh, well. She's your child, Buffy. You should name her as you see fit."  
  
"You are more like my dad than my real one. Besides that I want you to be her Godfather. You're opinion really matters."  
  
"I-uh.." He sputtered, unsure of exactly what to say.  
  
"Will, I want you to be her aunt. And Xander her uncle. You three, we've been through so much, and you're the closest things I have to family, besides mom. Giles, if you really don't feel comfortable being her grandfather, or uncle, then you're at least her god father." She looked at her lap. "I can't expect to always be there. I need you guys, to be there, in case something happens to me."  
  
"Don't talk like that!" Willow cried. "You're her mother Buffy!"  
  
"I am. I'm also a single parent. And a slayer. Who's lived longer than most of her predecessors, or..the ones who came after. I'm the active slayer, with a minimal amount of time left. Nobody knows how long they're going to be on this earth. Nobody knows the future, Will. And I need you to be there for her, if I can't be."  
  
"But you will be!"  
  
"She's right, Willow. No one knows how long they've got, especially the slayer." Giles backed her up.  
  
"What about Kendra Jennifer Summers?" Buffy said suddenly.  
  
"Is it smart to name her after two murdered people? Won't that be bad luck?" Willow asked.  
  
Buffy pouted momentarily pouted, "I was named after my great grandmother. But you're right, I guess. Both murdered by vampires, doesn't give her a good track record, does it? What about. . . . . . . Dawn Jennifer? I still want to name her after Miss Calendar. I feel I owe her something, even after all this time."  
  
"You don't owe her anything." Willow told her.  
  
"Dawn Jennifer Summers. I like it." Giles said quietly. "Do you look like a Dawn? Seem like a Dawn?" he asked the baby, in a not-so-Giles manner. The two girls stifled giggles.  
  
"Whether I like it or not, she's the dawn of a new life for me."  
  
"I-I'll be willing to watcher, while you're at class. You know how I value a good education-" he covered.  
  
"You've got the job." She said calmly, smiling.  
  
"We're tiring you out." Willow picked up. "And we have research to do, anyway."  
  
"Ah, yes." Giles handed her the bundle of baby and cloth. She accepted it with obvious pride.  
  
"It's strange to feel so much pride for something I didn't even know about four hours ago." She mused. Then she tore her eyes away from her child, and looked at her friends. "Keep me in the loop? It's not like I'll be doing a lot of research for awhile."  
  
"I promise. You get some rest, now." Giles told her.  
  
"yeah, I'll come by later. Bye, Dawnie!" Willow cooed the last bit. Buffy smiled and waved as they left.  
  
Once they were gone, she sagged back against the pillows. God was she tired! How could normal women willing go through that? Even with pain tolerance from being the slayer, and endurance, she was exhausted! And more than once? Once was enough for her, that was it. She didn't want to have to go through that ever again.  
  
But maybe, one day, a person would come around tat would change that. Not Riley, she loved him, or thought she did, but she wasn't sure she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. He was a nice guy, but in the long run . . . . . was he really what she needed?  
  
She switched gears, thinking about what had gone down the last time she went to L.A, with Faith, and then after that, when Angel came here. She couldn't believe that he and Riley had fought. Over her, too.  
  
Now, Angel, she could see herself with him for the rest of her life. He was her first love, and those didn't normally work out, but there was just something about him, that made even the worst situations better. But the jealous vampire act? She wasn't dating him anymore, she wasn't his.  
  
She held Dawn in one arm, and fingered her necklace absently. And then her fingers grazed over where he had bitten her. The one mar on her perfect skin. Well, no person's skin was perfect, but slayer healing got rid of most of the minor scars, which was good. But this one, even though the Master's had disappeared, his stayed. 


	3. Part Three

Part Three  
  
Notes: Thanks so much to Doukeshi03!!!!! Doukeshi03 helped me with the scottish dialogue, where I'd be literally stuck in the mud, trying to do it! So here it is:  
  
Enjoy:  
  
Dawn made a noise, as she squirmed, and Buffy tried to calm her.  
  
What was she thinking?! How could she be a mother to this child? Her child! She didn't know the first thing about being a mother!  
  
"Ye have t'rock 'er" A voice said. Feminine. Soothing, comforting. Not in the least threatening. But Buffy jumped, none the less. "Ah'm sorry, deary. Th' PTB sent meh, t' help ye out, now."  
  
"Who are you?" Buffy asked, holding her child closer to her chest.  
  
"Who Ah am, is nay important. What Ah am, may be. Ah'm an elf, sent by th' Powers That Be, t' help ye, in yer time oh' need."  
  
"I ask again, who are you?"  
  
"Mah name is Phae. Like Ah said, th' Powers-"  
  
"The Powers that Be sent you, yadda yadda. Why?"  
  
"T' help ye. Ah'm a Mother's Assistant to mah people, th' best there is, and Th' Powers, once th' found out about yer bundle oh' joy, knew ye wud need help. So here Ah am. Di'nay worry, only those who know Ah'm an elf can tell. T' others, Ah look jus' like a normal person. Most wud'nay even see me."  
  
"Uh-huh." Buffy was a skeptic. But then Dawn began crying. "Uh! What do I do?"  
  
"She's hungry, lass. Jus' needs a good feeding."  
  
"uh . . . . .how?"  
  
The elf shook her head. "Ye're gonna be needin' mah help, more than Ah thought lass." She walked over to the bed. "Here, let me see the wee bairn." She took the crying bundle. "Now, the Gods gave ye everythin' ye'd need t' nurse this bonnie thing."  
  
"I probably shouldn't have skipped Sex Ed class, shouldn't I?" Buffy said.  
  
"Ye'll do fine. Now, open yer blouse, lassie, and give her a nipple t'suck on. Go on, the bairn ain't goin' t'hurtcha" Buffy looked at her warily, then did as she was told. Dawn latched on, and started to feed.  
  
A strange feeling came over Buffy, a feeling of inner calm and peace. Her face must have shown it, because Phae commented.  
  
"See? Ye were meant t' be a mother, lass. Those are yer instincts, older than time itself, almost. They flow in the veins of every female creature alive. And even some tha' aren't." She said, half a warning, half to make conversation. Buffy nodded, looking at the tiny girl in her arms, sucking hungrily at her chest.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Riley paced his room. Buffy was in the hospital, and he had no clue why, and nobody was telling him anything. He knew when he was being left out of the loop. And he didn't like it one bit. He had tried calling the hospital, but he had been told there was, 'no information concerning Miss Summers is available at this time.' Which probably meant she didn't want it given out, for some reason.  
  
He couldn't call Joyce, on the off chance she didn't know: Buffy tended to like to keep her mom away from all things slayer related. If this was a slayer related injury, her mom might not know, and she might not want her mom knowing.  
  
He knew there was a way for him to get information, but he really didn't want to. It was almost cruel. Could he really do that? Use his government connections, just to check up on her? She'd be incredibly hurt. Was it worth it?"  
  
He sighed, and did some more pacing, waiting for the phone.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Angel sat at his desk, going through some paperwork, when he heard it. The noises that came just before a vision. He rushed out to the woman, catching her as she fell.  
  
"AHH!" She cried, holding her splitting head.  
  
"Shh. It's ok. I've got you. What did you see, Cordy?"  
  
"You. . . and Buffy. Kissing . . . in the sunlight. Then Buffy and Willow . . . . at school. Willow . . . . .is supporting her. She's hunched. . . . .over in pain. Then, the hospital . . . . Buffy, in a bed . . . . holding . . . .something. Room . . . . . 154. Oh!" she groaned, her head splitting. He helped her over to a chair, and started to massage her neck. It seemed to help with the pain. "You're needed in Sunnydale." She said, sighing slightly as his hands massaged the tightness out of her neck and upper back.  
  
"I want to make sure you're ok, first."  
  
"I'm fine. Buffy needs you more." He looked at her, unsure. "Angel, I've come to learn, the more pain, the more urgent. Go!" He nodded, and grabbed his coat from the rack, and decided to grab a few weapons as well. Never bad to be prepared. The sun had just set, so he was fine in that department.  
  
He had trepidation about going back to Sunnydale. It was clear that Buffy didn't want him there. And in the vision, she was at school. It was the middle of summer. And Buffy had never been one to take extra courses. How was he to know when the vision took place? The Powers were always cryptic, by way of nature.  
  
He drove with all due speed towards Sunnydale, and got there just before midnight. He wasn't sure where to go first, Buffy's house, Willow's, Giles, where he'd most likely not get too warm a welcome, or to the boy's, Xander's. Either place, he'd be met with mixed reactions. Joyce never did trust or like him, Xander was jealous, Willow was Buffy's best friend, and therefor resented him for leaving. Giles was the closest thing Buffy had to a father, and she his daughter, besides his Angelus time, where he had tortured the watcher. Or to the hospital, how could he get in? It was past visiting hours, and would Buffy even want him? And what if that guy . . . .Finn, was there?  
  
Would it be best to keep a low profile? Buffy would resent it, but more than she would resent him being here? It was hard to tell. No, it was best to announce himself, so Buffy would know, and not be put out that he was sneaking around her town. He sighed, an unneeded one, and turned his car towards the center of town, and the hospital complex there.  
  
He entered the hospital with no problems. Getting to Buffy's room was harder. The hospital was light, day and night, though the corridor lights were dimmed, so patients could sleep. He went up to the desk, deciding to check there.  
  
"Hi, I was told Buffy Summers was here? She's in room 154, right? Could you tell me where that is, please?" The nurse looked up at him, and then began typing at the computer.  
  
"Right down there. But sir, visiting hours are over. You'll have to come back tomorrow."  
  
He sighed, putting on a guise. "Dang. I haven't seen her in awhile, and when I heard from a friend she was here, I never even stopped to think. Tomorrow? I have to work. When do visiting hours end?"  
  
"Eight."  
  
"If I get off at four, three hours here, that's seven, an hour..." He muttered to himself, part of the guise. "There's no way I can get in to night? Even if she's awake?" he asked. "It's a long way, to see her for such a short amount of time."  
  
"I'm sorry sir. She's tired from her ordeal, and has asked for no visitors until tomorrow at noon, besides her sister."  
  
"her sister?" he was confused.  
  
"The red head." The told him.  
  
"Oh, that sister. Ok, well, thank you very much, and I'm sorry to bother you."  
  
"It's alright, sir."  
  
"Good night." He gave her a nod of the head, something that was popular in his day, and she smiled. He guessed her nights were generally slow.  
  
He walked out, his duster flapping behind him, and went towards his car, trying to think up a haunt for the day. He wondered if the mansion was in use.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Giles, this is hopeless." Willow pouted. "I can't find anything on a spell that would make Buffy forget something this big. There are spells for minor alterations, but getting pregnant isn't a small thing! And anything larger than that, it would take a huge amount of power, if not that of a whole coven! Who would want to do something like this to Buffy?"  
  
"A demon who impregnated her, and then did not want her to find out until it was too late to get rid of the baby?"  
  
"But she's so normal looking! There's no way that she could be demonic, Giles! Babies are pure."  
  
"But not always good."  
  
"How are we going to tell Buffy? There's no way she's going to give that baby up. I'm already attached to her. Buffy has carried her around for nine months, unknowingly, yes, but there's a really deep bond there."  
  
"We still don't know for sure. Do we know around what time this would have taken place?"  
  
"Late November, early December. The nurse said that Buffy looked to be bearly pregnant, but the baby was developed to the 40, 41 week mark. But she sounded like she was just guessing.  
  
"And she said that it was possible to not know you were pregnant until you went into labor, but it was unusual."  
  
"What if it wasn't just a spell on her memory, but a glamour to hide the baby as well?"  
  
"We're talking strong magic, then."  
  
"I agree." Willow sighed and placed her head on the book, on top of the desk, where she was sitting.  
  
Giles lay a soothing hand on her shoulder, before going to look at some of his more obscure references.  
  
~ * ~  
  
When Buffy woke up in the morning, Phae was still there. How she had managed to elude the nurses, she had no clue, but she was still there.  
  
"Good morning, lass. Hope ye slept well?"  
  
"yeah." She yawned, stretching.  
  
"Do ye want th' wee lass noo?" she motioned towards the plastic box like crib that Dawn had slept in.  
  
"Did she sleep all night?" Buffy asked, confused. She thought babies didn't sleep through the night until they were older.  
  
"Nay." She held up the bottle. "But ye were exhausted, and Ah let ye sleep. She needs yer milk, aye, but a wee bit of goat's milk isn't going t' harm her none."  
  
"Goat's milk?" Buffy was concerned.  
  
"Wha' do you think babies of old were raised on? It won't harm her none, dain't be worryin'." She gathered up the bundle and deposited it in Buffy's arms.  
  
"Thank you." She murmured. "hi, baby." She said, as the baby squirmed in her arms.  
  
"Oh, just thought ye'd like t' know, ye'll be havin' a visitor, t'night, after dark."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Did'nay catch his name. But he was surely tall, and mightily broody."  
  
"Angel." she sighed. How'd he find out? Had Willow told him?  
  
Speak of the devil. She thought, as the red head entered the room, sunny as spring day. "Hi, Buffy! I brought you some things." Willow patted her back pack. "Hospital essentials. I've got your shampoo and conditioner, your body wash, and a brush. As well as some clothes. And, ta da! Make up! Makes every girl feel better!"  
  
"Thanks, Will." She smiled at the girl. "uh, is there a bathroom around here somewhere?" Willow checked, and pointed it out to her. "Would you hold her, while I go freshen up?"  
  
"Sure. Hey, who's that?" She pointed to the corner where Phae was sitting.  
  
"How'd ye see me? Ye weren't supposed t'notice me!"  
  
"Phae, she's a witch. She's also my best friend." Buffy told the elf, but then she turned to her friend, "But how did you see her, Will? I couldn't until she wanted me to."  
  
"I just looked around, and there she was." She didn't mention the spell she had cast in the car. It was something she and Giles had found late last night, that was supposed to show where magic had been used to alter something. The baby glowed slightly, and there was a strange aura around Buffy, but the . . . . thing, Phae, reeked of magic. She definitely wasn't human.  
  
Besides that the walls glowed a slight purple, most than likely a spell for health, and protection. For Sunnydalians, the doctors and nurses, or at least some, weren't as blind as they played.  
  
But now they knew that it was in fact a spell that was done, and to still have such a strong trace after this long, nine months, showed just how strong the caster was. Willow began to worry. Her powers were growing in leaps and bounds, but she still couldn't compare to someone who could make a mother forget about an unborn child, for nine months. Or to glamour the growth away. It was both amazing, and terrifying. She was no longer sure if they were talking about a mortal anymore.  
  
Willow sat with the infant as her mother went and freshened up, went to the bathroom, showered, and put on a tiny bit of make up. Her mother had always joked that with a properly made up face, you could face almost anything.  
  
Buffy wished her mom was here, but had no clue how to tell her. Hey, mom, guess what?! I've been pregnant for nine months, without knowing it, and yesterday I have birth! Congratulations! You're a grandmother. No, I don't know who the father is. But we're trying to figure that out.  
  
She sighed. Her mother had taken everything so well, but this? This wasn't slayer related. This was about being a girl. And being careful. Though how could she be careful, if she hadn't even known?  
  
And on that topic, why hadn't the baby been damaged in any way? After she and Riley started sleeping together, she had started taking Birth Control. Surely that would have damaged the baby?  
  
Unless of course someone or thing had been protecting it this whole time. Making sure she didn't find out and do something about it.  
  
She brought the subject up to Willow, and through it all, Phae was looking guiltier and guiltier.  
  
"Ok, what do you know?"  
  
"Me? Nothin'." The elf said.  
  
"Why don't I believe you? Oh, it could be your shiftiness, or it could be the guilty look on your face. Now, let me ask again, and this is the last time, Phae, what do you know?"  
  
"Tha' baby is special. A child born to a slayer, now they're rare, and powerful. A prophecy usually gans along wi'it. She did'nay want anythin' hap'nin' t' that child, Ahm sure o' that one."  
  
"She?"  
  
Phae gulped. "I know not her name, lass. She jus' told me t' watch over ye and the wee bairn, and Ah did. No askin' questions. Elves are trustin' creatures, ye ken."  
  
"Well slayers aren't." She turned back to Willow. "Go check with Giles. There's that book of prophecies. . . . The Something or other Codex. Lots of stuff on slayers, I guess. Didn't pay too much attention when he was talking about it. Have him check it, and any others he can. I want to know what my baby has to do with anything. If there's an impending apocalypse, I want to know about it." Willow nodded, and handed over the infant. Willow left her bag on the bed and left. Buffy turned to Phae. "If you know anything else, it would be in your best interest to tell me now. Slayers are not known for their patience."  
  
"Then ye're goin' t' be havin' a mighty difficult time being a ma. Trust me on that one, at least." She turned away from mother and child and sat back in her corner, as Buffy sat down in the chair next to the bed. She wasn't one to stay in bed all day. That was one of the things she hated most about being in the hospital. 


	4. Part Four

Divine Interference  
  
Part Four  
  
Posted: April 6, 2004  
  
Author's notes: I'm terribly sorry for such a long delay. The whole getting into season five really scared me, and I thought it was going to be harder than it really was. I didn't want to copy the season episode by episode. But now I've done one episode, and you'll get there eventually, and it's really not that hard. I still tend to have tense problems though.....  
  
And I just wanted to get this over with....  
  
NO ONE PICKED IT UP!!! Lol. I've been spelling Divine wrong! Evil me! Lol. It should be right from here on out guys, ok?  
  
Ok!  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Destiny-ruler: Ok, if you haven't figured it out yet, you are on the right track, but it's been so long since I've worked on this, I should really go and reread what I've posted, but anyway...all of your questions should be answered soon!  
  
Doukeshi03: things are going to become clearer. And thanks once again so much for doing the Scottish dialogue.  
  
WhiteWolf 3: I'm glad your liking it. I'm sorry for such a long wait in updates!  
  
Kate: Yeah, I don't know why I keep doing cliffhangers. I hate the crappers, and yet I tend to write them. Here is your next, very long awaited update, and I'' terribly sorry!  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
"I cannot believe her!"  
  
"She didn't let anything of importance slip, and she sent them on a dead end path." Ganymedia was fast to sooth her mate.  
  
"You were in league with others, and you did not tell me!"  
  
"Malhavoc, calm down. It was just as dangerous as telling you, as leaving the slayer to her own devices. The Hell God is getting closer, and the monks had to do something. By putting the power into her unborn child, in her womb, there is no doubt that she shall cherish and protect it until her dying breath, and beyond."  
  
"What about the vampire? Surely he will figure it out, and he shall go to her, and her watcher. What shall we do then?"  
  
"Do not doubt him so quickly. He has his own secrets. She reacted badly to his decision when she knew of his day of life, she shall be just as displeased now as she was then. He shan't tell her, unless he has to. He knows her wrath, and he knows her pain. He shall not risk it, unless it is absolutely necessary."  
  
"But will he let that boy raise his child? He hates her mate, we both know that. If only to hurt him, he might risk it."  
  
"No. He's hurt to many in his days and he would not be so petty. He's seen where that path leads, for both vampires and humans. No, he's beyond petty hate."  
  
"Hating a guy for dating his ex? No, that's not petty at all."  
  
"If anything, we can always intervene. Before the Powers find out."  
  
"Don't you think they're watching this just as closely as we are? We are talking about the potential end of the world! As if They didn't have enough to worry about, with Wolfram and Hart, no, now there's this."  
  
"Ganymedia! Malhavoc!" A voice that was not heavenly could be heard. "Stop bickering like children, or you shall be treated like a pair, and your jobs will be given to those who can do it better."  
  
"Yes, Aramil." They both bowed their heads at the presence of one of the Powers That Be. They didn't interfere for light matters.  
  
"We are unimpressed with your work thus far." A female voice, as cold as ice told them. It was Anassrianna. "But if it works out, then you shall be rewarded by keeping your jobs."  
  
"Otherwise, your powers will be stripped, and given to worthier gods." That was Evandele, voice like spring dew.  
  
"Yes, my lords." They chimed.  
  
"The vampire is to be trusted. He is, after all, a Champion of the Powers." Quarich told them. His voice was deep and melodic, almost like falling leaves. "And so is the girl. We are not pleased with the outcome of your endeavors in our names, but we are able to forgive. The girl is also a Chosen One among her generation, and our other Champion." It was well known that the Powers chose up to two Champions at a time, but only when a male and female was worthy. Many slayers had been champions, but it had been a long time since a male champion had been named, since none were worthy.  
  
When both champions were chosen at the same timeframe, then the time was special, and they tended to work closely together, and be soul mates, like the Gods they served. They would complete each other. But they always had a challenge to get through before they could live their destinies.  
  
They waited a few minutes, but that was the end of their conversation with the Powers That Be. The four Gods, each known for a season, and a feeling related to such, were not to be crossed. Both Malhavoc and Ganymedia waited just a bit longer, before getting up and going about their business. They did not want to loose their jobs.  
  
~ * ~  
  
At 6:42, when the sun began to sink, Buffy felt it. It was something she had been accustomed to knowing, since her job took place after the fall of night. She also became aware of his presence. She gave Dawn to Phae, so she would be out of the way. The baby was in no way a burden, but she had occasionally gotten her signals crossed before, and she wanted her safe.  
  
He stepped into the room as she sat in the chair, and he didn't look at her for a moment.  
  
"Buffy." He said finally.  
  
"Angel. What are you doing here?" She wasn't about to forget his last visit to Sunnydale, nor forgive him for it.  
  
"I heard you were in trouble, of sorts. My connection to the Powers said that you were here, and that they wanted me here. Don't ask me why, because I don't know." He looked her over critically. "Are you ok? How have you been?"  
  
"I've been better." He nodded, since it made sense since she was in the hospital. He looked around, and noticed the elf and baby. He didn't let her know that he could see them, since she obviously thought he couldn't. He filed the information away, with what little he had from the vision, and the glimpses of other patients in this wing.  
  
"How long are you here for?"  
  
"Couple days. Then its back to classes."  
  
"Yeah, I heard you were taking some summer courses. How's that?"  
  
"Keeps me out of trouble, for the most part." She looked down at her lap, then back up at him, "Angel, stop the act. We both know that you want information. So just ask. You owe me that much, to be honest with me."  
  
"Fine." He sighed. "The Powers that Be sent me here. I told you that. The vision, it saw you at school, hunched over, then you here, in this room. They obviously wanted me here. But I don't know why. Maybe it would help if I knew why you were in here, and why there is an elf in your corner, holding a baby."  
  
"How-" Buffy looked at him, confused. Phae stared in shock at him. Did her powers not work anymore?  
  
"I could smell you the moment I walked in the room." He told her. "And I could smell the baby as well. Pretty distinct scent, Buffy. A touch of the mother, milk, I can almost smell the innocence. I think I deserve you to be honest with me, since the Powers want me to be here."  
  
"There's nothing to tell, Angel. Three days ago, I started getting bad cramps. Yesterday, I gave birth. Her name is Dawn Jennifer Summers." She emphasized the middle name. He had hurt her so bad, and she just couldn't help but wan to hurt him in return.  
  
He winced, but that didn't satisfy her, it just hurt her further. "The father?"  
  
"There is none. No recollection of conceiving her. Willow and Giles are working on it, though."  
  
"What do you mean?" It just didn't add up. "Riley isn't the father?"  
  
"NO! No. And he doesn't know yet, either. I can't hide her forever, but he doesn't know. Neither does mom. Or Xander. I don't know what to tell them." She was clearly in pain.  
  
"If there's anything I can do. . . "  
  
"Patrol?" her voice was just above a whisper. She looked up at him, "I can't do this alone. I never thought I'd get to be a mother, never planned to be one. I have no idea what to do. But Phae is here to help. But I can't patrol. Not so soon. If anything happened-"  
  
"She needs her mother. Of course I'll patrol, Buffy. You don't even have to ask."  
  
"Stay clear of the Initiative guys. We closed it down, but there are still a few out there, who wouldn't care whose side your on. And stay away from Riley." He nodded.  
  
"Anything else?" She shook her head. She wouldn't look at him. The pain was too great.  
  
Phae could feel the pain and tension in the room. And they didn't even know. . . . .  
  
"Well, then I'll be going. Oh, here's my cell phone number, if you think of anything I can do . . ."  
  
"Ok." She nodded. Then a thought came to her, "Angel." he turned back to her, as she motioned Phae over. "Would you like to hold her?" He hesitated, remembering all the infants he had ripped from their mother's arms, and killed before their eyes, before moving in for the kill on them as well.  
  
But something told him to hold her, if only for a minute, maybe it was his longing to hold her mother. He nodded. Phae handed over the infant, and he was gentle with her. All of a sudden, he was awash in a sea of calm.  
  
He had learned through prior experience that an infant Dawn's age would have yet to produce her own scent, and for the first 24 to 48 hours, it varied from infant to infant, the child would carry the scent of both parents. He hesitantly took a sniff of the surrounding air. Sweet Pea hand lotion, Buffy's; lavender, Buffy's shampoo and conditioner; Kiwi, Buffy's body wash; the sweet scent of a mother's first milk; the smell of uterus fluids; the distinct smell of the elf; Buffy's distinct smell, and. . . . .  
  
His eyes widened, and he looked first to Buffy, who was gazing lovingly at her baby, and then the elf. She gave him a small smile and a half wink. She knew! But how . . . . .  
  
Was that what the first part of Cordy's vision meant? But everything had been reversed! Time itself, even!  
  
But, if he had memories, wasn't it possible that maybe inter-uterus couldn't be changed? And the Hell mouth might have played a role.  
  
Or was this something the Powers had cooked up?  
  
It wasn't possible. It couldn't be! He had to get out of there, so he could think!  
  
He looked down at the bundle in his arms, all soft baby skin, big blue eyes, and he couldn't. This was his child, and he couldn't leave her. She yawned, and promptly went to seep, and his undead heart melted. She was so tiny, and perfect, and his. His and Buffy's.  
  
Buffy got up slowly and looked at the tiny bundle. She was close enough for him to smell her hair; not just the shampoo she used, or her conditioner, the oils itself.  
  
"She's asleep." She murmured.  
  
"She's so beautiful, Buffy. Just like her mother." She smiled, then seemed to remember something.  
  
"You'd better go. She's gonna sleep for an hour or so, and then she's gonna be hungry."  
  
"Yeah, ok." He passed their child to her, even though she didn't know, and might never know. Their hand brushed and he accidentally brushed her breast. He would have blushed, if vampireicly possible, but she didn't say anything, so he didn't say anything. God, he missed her so much! Being this close to her, and not being able to hold her, it was almost unbearable.  
  
Once Dawn was settled into her arms, he dropped his own to his sides, to prevent him from doing something rash.  
  
"It was great seeing you again. Ca-can I stop by later? Or tomorrow?" he was hesitant, not sure if he had overstepped his boundaries. But he wanted to see more, both of his baby, and her mother.  
  
"I'd like that." Her voice was soft. She said this without thinking. And then it was too late to take it back. She wasn't sure she wanted to.  
  
"Good." He impulsively slid his thumb down her cheek, caressing it. Then his hand dropped to his side. "Bye, Buffy. Dawn." He turned to the elf. "Phae." He gave her a look that clearly said, 'take good care of them. Both of them. Or else.' If she could sense that he was the father, then she had to have sensed what he was. And the consequences. She bobbed her head once, and he left. Buffy sat back in the chair, and sagged into the back.  
  
Seeing Angel and the efforts of the day before drained her more than she'd like to admit. The birth had drained her physically, the way no fight ever could; and seeing Angel had drained her emotionally.  
  
"Why don't ye take a nap? Yer friends, Willow and Mr. Giles shall no' be here for at least another hour. The child'll sleep for at least that long. Take a rest. Ye deserve it." Buffy looked at her sweats and tank top, and nodded. Wrinkled was in. She set Dawn in the plastic crib/box and curled up on the bed.  
  
Phae went over to the child, behind Buffy's back, and waved her hand over her face. She then went over and waved her hand twice over Buff's face, and she was asleep. She now knew they would not awaken before she returned. She thought about her destination, picturing it in her mind, and she disappeared.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Buffy had peaceful dreams, nothing remarkable, or even worth remembering. She woke up to the sounds of a whimpery cry, and murmuring.  
  
"Shh, now, wee one. Yer Ma's asleep, now. Shh."  
  
"No, I'm awake. Give her here." She sighed. Once Dawn was firmly attached, and was contentedly feeding, she turned back to the elf. "Why didn't you wake me? Or feed her some more goat's milk?" She asked, though it was clear she wasn't happy with the idea.  
  
"Now, tha' would'nay be takin' good care of either of ye. Goat's milk is perfectly fine fer a child, but not nursing can be painful fer the mother. She needs the nutrients."  
  
"What do you mean, good care of us?"  
  
"Ah was told t' take good care o' both of you, and the Powers agree. Mah assignment was only t' take care of you, but now the job has changed."  
  
"Who told you?" The elf shut her eyes, like she said too much. But she opened them, and stared straight into Buffy's eyes.  
  
"Ye're man told me to."  
  
"Riley?! He was here?!"  
  
"Nay, th' vampire."  
  
"He's not my. . . .man. We were involved, but we broke up a long time ago, and I'm over him." She told her.  
  
"Just keep tellin' yersel' that, lass. Eventually, ye'll believe it." Buffy sulked in silence as Dawn drank her fill.  
  
Dawn was just finishing up as Giles and Willow showed up, with nothing new to report, besides that it was in fact a spell that had caused Buffy to forget. And a potential one that could have both protected the baby, and left her unawares.  
  
They also had bad news. Riley was freaking out. He'd left a couple messages on the dorm answering machine, a couple at Giles's house, and he had said he was thinking about calling her house.  
  
"But then mom will find out I'm in the hospital!" She cried. They both nodded glumly. "But she can't know! Not until we get this figured out."  
  
"What if you told him half of the truth? That you just found out you were under a spell, and you first went to the hospital, for your own safety, but once everything's figured out, you'll tell him. That gives you time, and he won't contact your mom."  
  
"Good idea, Will. That might end up being what I have to do. But I don't want to lie to him!"  
  
"But is lying better than the truth, Buffy?" Giles asked.  
  
She looked down at the tiny baby in her arms. "Yeah. It is." She said, resigned. "Could you take her? She might be a bit fussy. She just ate." Willow took the baby, as Buffy grabbed the phone.  
  
She dialed the number she knew by heart, and waited for it to be picked up. Graham picked it up, but promised to go find Riley.  
  
"Buffy! Oh my God! I've been so worried about you!"  
  
"Hi, Riley. Listen, I just wanted to let you know, there's nothing to worry about. Someone put a spell on me, and we're trying to figure it out. It's best if you don't come and visit me, I'm sorta muddled."  
  
"What type of spell?" He was genuinely concerned, and it hurt her heart.  
  
"Memory spell. We're not sure what I've forgotten, but it's something big, I can tell you that much."  
  
"When will I be able to see you again?"  
  
"I don't know, Riley. I'm sorry. Look, Willow's here, and she wants to run some tests, so I have to go."  
  
"I love you, Buffy."  
  
"I love you too." But in her heart, she didn't mean it, and she knew it. And that scared her. She hung up slowly. Willow handed back her baby, and she hugged her tight to her chest.  
  
"Uh, Giles, could you go get me something to eat? Phae, I think that Buffy needs to eat to, could you go with him?" She glared at both of them, and finally they left, ignoring Buffy's meager protests. She closed the door behind them, then sat on the bed next to Buffy. "What's wrong?" She asked quietly.  
  
"I'm just so confused." She hung her head. "Three days ago, I was a happy college student, taking some great summer courses, to stay closer to my boyfriend. But now, I'm a single mother, and I can't even determine what's reality and fiction anymore. How could I have not known about her, Willow? I know everything about my body! From how much force it takes to break just about every bone, how much force to exert to break my spin, to paralyze me, to kill me. I know how high a window I can jump out of, if necessary, and how much of a reaction I have to make, mid air, to land with the best of my ability, and to not get hurt.  
  
"So, then how could I not know about the baby growing in my stomach?!"  
  
"The spell . . . ."  
  
"It's just an excuse, Will. Maybe it was that I didn't want to know."  
  
"No, Buffy, I did a spell, yesterday, before I showed up, that allowed me to see magic, and you, the elf, and Dawn have either used magic, or had magic used on you. Now, you don't use magic, and Dawn's too little, so that has to mean a spell was cast on you."  
  
"Angel visited earlier today." She muttered.  
  
"He did? What did he want?"  
  
"His connections to the Powers sent him here. Said he was needed, and urgent. Everything is so much more complicated with him here!" Buffy cried.  
  
"I know. I understand, Buffy. Why don't you just tell him to go back to L.A?"  
  
"Because I don't want him to!" she unconsciously touched a hand to her cheek, "When he's around, he makes everything so complicated, but also simpler. I know he still loves me. And I thought I was over him, but . . . what if I'm not? What if he's in my heart to stay, and he just keeps showing up?"  
  
"Oh, Buffy." She drew her best friend into a gentle hug, taking care not to squash the infant between them. "It'll all work out, you'll see. He has to be here for a reason."  
  
"But what if I don't want to know why?" she whispered.  
  
"Shh." She rocked her distraut friend.  
  
When Giles and Phae came back, carrying soft drinks and tea, Buffy and Willow were deep in conversation about the hottest guys in the movies. Giles shook his head admirably at the pair, and sipped his tea.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Angel waited a few hours to go back to visit Buffy. He actually waited until they switched shifts. While the desk was unmanned, just for a minute, he slid past, and crept into her room. He stood against the wall, watching her sleep. Tonight, Dawn was in the nursery, so Phae had left. He was alone with her.  
  
She murmured something in her sleep, and rolled over in the bed. He moved closer, and moved the hair from her face, brushing it to the sides of her head, so her beautiful face showed. He knew he should be ashamed of himself, or something. Peeping Tom that he was. Anything but what he was feeling.  
  
He was feeling the old flames rekindling. He was feeling the bottomless pit where his love had been for her slowly fill to the brim, and even overflow, once more. He had fought it, and he had tried to run from it, but there was just no use anymore. Now that they had a child together. . . . Things were different.  
  
He brushed the back of his hand over her smooth cheek, and she shivered slightly from the cool touch. He knew that he should leave, but he couldn't. He just wanted to hold her warm body against his cool skin once more.  
  
She shifted away from him, lost in a dream, so he turned from the bed. He thought back to all the pictures that Angelus had drawn and left for her, and even the ones that he had drawn, and burned because they could never show her true beauty. He thought about it a moment, then quietly positioned the chair so he could have a clear view of her, and yet couldn't be seen from the door. As a vampire, he didn't need light. He took out a sketchpad, no real reason for it to be in his pocket, and he began to sketch.  
  
He started fresh five times, before he thought he had captured a fifth of her beauty. He smiled, once he looked over the final drawing, and tucked it away in his pocket. He knew that if he left it for her, she would freak. It would just be a reminder of her time living with Angelus on the loose. He had no want to remind her of his past.  
  
He decided to leave her be, he didn't want her to wake, and find him lurking in her room. Next, he decided to visit Dawn in the nursery. Another couple stood by the window, staring lovingly at their child, the father holding the mother in his arms.  
  
"Which one's yours?" the couple asked, and he answered, without thinking.  
  
"Um...that one. Over there." He pointed her out.  
  
"She's really pretty." The mother said.  
  
"Thanks. Uh, congratulations. Which one is yours?" He asked, uncomfortable. He was still working on his people skills.  
  
"He's right over there." The dad pointed, bearly letting go of his wife; he could see the ring on her finger. "What's her name?"  
  
"Uh. . . . Dawn. Dawn Jennifer. What's his name?" It got easier as time went by.  
  
"James Mackintosh Qwilleran." The father said with pride, and the mom just beamed up at him. "Family name." He said, to Angel's curious stare. Angel nodded.  
  
A/N: before I forget, James Mackintosh Qwilleran is the main character in 22+ books written by Lillian Jackson Braun. I do not own that name, I just couldn't think up a name, then James, then QWILL! So, it's not mine. But I just had to use it, I love that name.  
  
Angel watched the infant sleep for awhile. He wanted to do a sketch, but not with the others there. Eventually, the father led the mother away, telling her that she needed to get some rest.  
  
He pulled out his pad and pencil, and began to sketch. He had never drawn an infant before, and he found it challenging, but he eventually got the hang of it. He noticed that she had the same eye shape and forehead as Buffy, as well as her tiny nose. But then, all the infants had tiny noses. He sighed an unneeded sigh, and continued.  
  
Buffy awoke to a presence in her room. Using breathing techniques Giles had taught her, she faked sleep, while trying to figure out who or what it was. The figure came over and brushed its hand over her cheek, and she shivered involuntarily at his cold touch. He then drew the chair over, and took something from his pocket. She almost sighed, and gave herself away, but she didn't.  
  
It seemed like forever, but whatever he was doing, he became satisfied, and left.  
  
She sat up, after his footsteps had faded away down the hall, and touched her cheek, where he had touched her. She smiled, and lay back to go to sleep.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Buffy was awoken the next morning, to find Willow sitting none to patiently in the chair next to her bed. "Buffy!" She cried, when she saw the slayer's eyes open.  
  
"Hi, Will. What time is it?" She asked, trying to fight the sleepy cobwebs from her brain.  
  
"10:30. But they're letting you go home today!"  
  
"Great! Yes!" Buffy hopped out of the bed. "Oh, wait. There's still the problem of mom and Riley." She sat back on the bed with a sigh.  
  
"Your mom will be easier than Riley."  
  
"You didn't see her after she learned about Angel."  
  
"Ah."  
  
"But it's my best shot. So, when can I check out?"  
  
"Lunchtime."  
  
"Thank God! I hate hospitals."  
  
"So, is that elf, Phae coming with you?"  
  
"O' course Ah'm comin'. It's mah job t' take care of th' wee one, and there's nee way Ah'm goin' t' jus abandon her, now!" Buffy sighed.  
  
"Will, could you look after her, for like 20 minutes, while I go talk to my mom? I want her to meet her today, but if I walk in with her, mom's not going to listen." She shook her head.  
  
"Sure. But. . . .what about Riley?"  
  
"I don't know." She sighed. "I have to tell him something. When I figure out what I'm going to tell him, could you take her then, too? If she's there, he's gonna get all stuffy and he's not going to listen to reason, and he'll go flying off the handle." Willow nodded. "Will, should I tell him that Angel's here? The last time they saw each other, they beat each other to pulps, and Angel's gonna be staying for awhile, but I'm afraid after Riley finds out about Dawn, he might do something stupid, and attacking Angel would be something he would do." Willow nodded.  
  
"I think that he doesn't have a right to know. Angel is your problem."  
  
"But he'll be jealous."  
  
"There's nothing between you and Angel anymore. He should realize that." Willow rationalized. Buffy sighed, but didn't say anything more.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Mom? You here?"  
  
"Kitchen!" Buffy wove her way through the gallery boxes, and into the kitchen. "Hi, Buffy. It's great seeing you!" she hugged her mother.  
  
"Mom, I want to talk to you about something. But you can't freak."  
  
"Then you shouldn't tell me I can't, because it leads to freaking." She told her daughter. They sat down at the bar.  
  
"Mom. A spell was put on me, about nine months ago. We're not sure by whom, but we now know why." Joyce looked at her daughter, concerned. "The spell was a memory spell, and it made me forget something. Something important. Now here's where you are going to freak. The spell . . . . "she took a deep breath, and Joyce could tell it was something serious. "The spell made me forget getting pregnant. I learned about it three days ago. I haven't remembered what I was meant to forget, but Willow's working on it." She looked at her hands in her lap.  
  
"If you don't know what you forgot, then how'd you know- Oh." It dawned on her.  
  
"Mom, I am so sorry! I had no idea, and I-"  
  
"Buffy, it's ok. Well, not ok, ok, but I understand. You had nothing to do with this, I know that. Where is . . . . it now?"  
  
"She. Willow has her right now. She's out in the car. I didn't want to spring her on you, I wanted a chance to explain, before you met her." She looked at her mom, with a look on her face that Joyce knew really well. It was the "I'm sorry, I know it was wrong, but what are you thinking?' look.  
  
"Can I meet her now?" Buffy nodded, and went to get her child. Willow squeezed her best friend's hand, and followed her inside.  
  
"Mom, this is Dawn Jennifer Summers." Buffy held her child out to her mother, and she took her.  
  
"Do you know the father? No, of course not, you don't remember." Buffy cringed back a bit, and Joyce sighed. "That was way more judgmental than I meant. But Buffy, I haven't seen you since the start of the summer, and you didn't look pregnant then, and now you come to me, with a child?"  
  
"There was another spell used, that hid the growth and development of the child from view." Willow told Buffy's mom. "That's why no one knew that she was pregnant, until she went into labor."  
  
"I had gained some weight, but I just thought it from stress. I had no idea." Buffy hastened to add.  
  
"Dawn Jennifer Summers, is that her name?" Buffy nodded. "I like it. Now, what are we going to do about college, Buffy?"  
  
"Giles has offered to take her once regular classes start, in the fall. I can maybe still get half credit for the classes I'm taking now. And if Will helps me, I might be able to pass the exams, if she'll take notes and help me with them at night. If she would pick up my homework, I know I can do it, mom." She looked at her best friend as she felt the squeeze of her hand.  
  
"You're laying an awful lot of responsibility on Willow. What does she think of all this?"  
  
"I'm perfectly fine with it, Ms. Summers. I've been tutoring a few others, and I normally help Buffy out with notes she missed, or didn't understand." She nodded, and she seemed genuinely happy to help, Joyce thought.  
  
"Fine, if you think you can do this. Though I don't think you understand just how hard it is to raise a child, Buffy. Its exhausting work."  
  
"Mom, I have great help, and I think I can handle it."  
  
Joyce nodded. "Well, if you ever need any help, I'm here, you know that, right?"  
  
"Yeah, mom." She smiled, "I do." Joyce went back to staring at the tiny girl in her arms.  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
Author's Note: Way longer chapter than I was planning on posting, but since it's been so long, I guess I owe it to you. I have another study hall on Friday, so I'll try to update one story or another then, but I have a paper due Thursday, and a French project due Friday, so Study hall, and then the weekend will probably be the only times I can update, but I will always be writing, never fear on that.  
  
I will try to update one or two stories at least once a week from here on out, a sort of random regular update. I don't know which story I will be ready to update next, I have almost finished redoing chapter 8 of One of a Kind, and I almost have enough written for The Dark Years. And then I have a few typed pages of this. So don't give up on me. And keep reviewing! 


	5. Part Five

Divine Interference  
  
Chapter Five  
  
Posted:  
  
Author's notes:  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
"One down, one to go." Buffy sighed as she, Dawn and Willow left a bit later. Joyce was enraptured with her granddaughter, even though she wouldn't admit it.  
  
"Are you sure you want to do Riley today? It's sorta late."  
  
"I wanna get it over with. Besides that I want to do a quick sweep of the campus."  
  
"Buffy! You just got out of the hospital! You just gave birth three days ago!"  
  
"Do you think vampires are really going to care? A slayer can't exactly take maternity leave."  
  
"What about Angel?"  
  
"I asked him to stay away from Riley, which should mean he'll stay away from campus. Hopefully. I really don't want to see him right now."  
  
"So, Hamilton it is, then."  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Is Riley Finn here?" She asked when some unknown guy opened the door. Since the Initiative had been closed, the frat house had turned into a regular frat, including guys she didn't know. But no demony worship. She made sure of that.  
  
He looked her up and down, then nodded, and let her in. She followed him as far as the stairs, and then went up to Riley's room, where she knocked quietly.  
  
"Go away." She turned the knob and entered. "I said go-" He turned, angry.  
  
"Away. I know."  
  
"Buffy!" he rushed over and took her into his arms. She allowed him to and automatically put her arms around him. "God! I was so worried! Where've you been?" She had a flashback to when she had said the same, but she shook it off. "What happened to you?"  
  
She led him over to the bed, and made him sit down. "You have to calm down first." He made a show of calming his breathing. "Ok." She smiled at him, a hollow smile, but one nonetheless. "This is serious, Riley. Please don't wig on me." She said, concerned, and nervous on how he'd take the news.  
  
"Why would I?" He asked, softly.  
  
She sighed. "Nine months ago, a spell to alter my memory was cast. On me. I didn't find out about it until three days ago."  
  
"Ok. I'm not seeing the big picture here."  
  
"Four days ago, I started getting these really bad muscle...things. Contractions, Riley. I've been pregnant, for the past nine months, and I had no clue, and no idea whose child it was. Who ever wanted me to forget, also covered the signs, too. No signs, no symptoms, no clue." She looked from her lap to him, then back down. "That's where I've been, I was in the hospital, giving birth. And I'm keeping her, Riley. She's mine. My flesh and blood. I don't know her father, and she might not have been conceived out of love, but she's still mine." She looked up at him, through her eyelashes, waiting for the worst.  
  
He just looked at her a moment, speechless. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought-  
  
Then he smiled, shook his head in awed amazement, and put his arms around her, drawing her close.  
  
"You aren't mad, or...anything?" she asked, too scared to hope.  
  
"I'm shocked, yeah. But I don't know anyone else who could take this in stride, Buffy. You are the most remarkable woman I've ever known. And I know you can do this." She smiled into his chest.  
  
"Thanks for the vote of confidence."  
  
"So, do I get to meet her?" He asked, pulling away from her, so he could see her face.  
  
"Yeah, if you want. She's with Will right now. And Phae. Come on." She took his hand and led him out of the room.  
  
"Phae?"  
  
~ * ~  
  
Buffy was up just about every hour that night, to feed Dawn. After the first two interruptions, Willow did a soundproofing spell, around her bed, so she could sleep. Buffy didn't blame her. Sometimes the baby didn't want to be fed, just held, but Buffy was too young and naive to know yet what each cry meant. Phae was there, but not much help. She left just around midnight, with no explanation. She wouldn't hear of Buffy not feeding her child.  
  
The last time she woke, it was just before 3 a.m. and she was exhausted. Even a slayer couldn't manage this type of pace. After getting the child back to sleep, she fell across the bed, asleep before she landed.  
  
She woke at just before dawn, confused, and frightened. Why hadn't Dawn woken her again? It had been...over an hour!  
  
She sat up, shaking the dizziness away as the blood rushed to her head. What she saw stopped her dead.  
  
Angel was standing in the middle of the room, rocking Dawn. Buffy heard her baby gurgle, and her heart started to beat once more.  
  
He looked up and saw her sitting there. "Hi. I was in the neighborhood, and I could hear her crying outside. I figured you were exhausted, and Willow must have put up a no sound spell. You didn't revoke my invitation, so . . . . ."  
  
"You decided to come help me out." She looked at him, almost contemplatively.  
  
"I'm sorry if that offend you, but I figured that you'd need help."  
  
"No, not that."  
  
"What then?"  
  
"I was just thinking how nice it was, to wake up, and see you, with her." She looked down at her hands, in her blanketed lap, embarrassed. She picked at a loose thread. He walked over and sat on the bed near her. He stared at her, until she looked up at him.  
  
"I like you liking waking up with me here. I like being here, with you, and with her." He said, repositioning the child so he could place a hand on hers. She flinched. "Sorry."  
  
"Don't be. It's just . . . . . Everything is so different, Angel. You're in LA, I'm here. You have your team, your calling, while I have mine. I have Riley..." Angel bristled. "Don't. Please."  
  
"I'm sorry. I just hate seeing you with him. With anyone."  
  
"But you?"  
  
"Yeah." He said quietly.  
  
"We've tried us, Angel. And we tried again." She looked at him, eyes wide, and he almost thought he saw a glimmer of tears. "You left me, standing there, in the middle of everything, and you never said goodbye. So I moved on with my life. I'm 19, Angel. My life is finally on track. Sure, I now have another life that is dependant on me, but I'm doing all right for myself. And Riley really cares for me. And he wants to be there for Dawn. He can be here for Dawn. She needs a father, Angel-"  
  
"He's 21, Buffy! He's not going to want to be saddled with a child!"  
  
"Well, I didn't exactly get a choice in the matter, now did I?" He sighed, knowing it was his entire fault.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"For what?" her curiosity was peaked. She didn't think he was talking about her life being upset.  
  
"For...reminding you." He looked down at their sleeping child, then up at her gorgeous mother. "I'm saddened to say that I am now as taken with her, as I am with her mother." He waited for her to get it. "I want to be here, not just for her, but for both of you."  
  
She slowly nodded, but then looked out the window. "The sun is rising. You'd better get going." She looked as unhappy about it as he felt.  
  
"Yeah, I guess." He passed her the child. He stood, and she followed him to the door. "I sorta like your arms full." He said, stepping closer, and tipping her chin up for a kiss. She complied without thinking- it just felt so right having him kiss her. She stepped closer, leaning into him, to deepen the kiss, but Dawn squawked at the tight corners, and she broke it off, turning away, but she was smiling.  
  
"Bad baby." He murmured.  
  
"I'll see you later." He kissed her quickly.  
  
"Definitely." He gave her a smile, one of those that used to melt her heart by sight, and slipped out the door. She sighed and leaned against it. Why did things have to be so damn complicated?  
  
~ * ~  
  
Willow went to class, while Buffy took Dawn to Giles, for research. He was delighted to see the infant, in his own, British way.  
  
After classes, Willow informed her of her, 'extended illness,' and then caught her up on notes and helped her with homework. Then she ran to the local Magic Shop, to see if any books there might be able to cast some light on their mystery.  
  
No pun intended.  
  
After Sunset, Angel came around, mostly to stare after Buffy and to dote on Dawn, but he did chip in and do his part of the research. Giles at first was unhappy to have him there, but he saw how happy it made Buffy, so he allowed it. At nine, Buffy left Dawn with Willow, and she and Angel went out to do a quick sweep of town, before Dawn needed to be fed again.  
  
That night, Angel stayed at Giles' to research through the night, but Willow and Buffy took Dawn home to sleep. They came back early Saturday, and Willow had come up with a spell. They set up, Angel with some wariness, and while Giles and Angel looked after Dawn, Willow and Buffy started the spell.  
  
"Let the slayer see  
  
What used to be  
  
Let her memory fix  
  
Let the smokes mix." She lit two candles, one blue, for awareness, and a white one, for protection.  
  
"When the clock strikes the hour  
  
I call upon the power  
  
To let her see  
  
What she needs to see." She chanted, while she and Buffy sat in the middle of a sacred circle she had constructed. Buffy had been instructed to sit quietly, and meditate, while Willow did all the hard work. At first, nothing happened. Then, Willow felt a resistance to her spell. So she pushed harder. Finally, something snapped, but maybe that wasn't such a good thing. She was thrown out of the circle, and lay on Giles' floor, breathing heavily.  
  
Angel rushed over to her, and once Buffy opened her eyes, she did as well. "Will! Are you ok? Speak to me!"  
  
"That spell was . . . .awesome!" She breathed, slowly sitting up, with Angel's aid. "Someone definitely doesn't want you knowing what you were supposed to forget, Buffy."  
  
"If they wanted me to know, then I probably wouldn't have forgotten." She told her friend, smiling. "Are you sure you're ok?"  
  
"Yeah. I have a really bad headache, though. I had to push, on whoever did that spell. They're strong willed, but nobody's more stubborn than I." She smiled. "Giles, do you have any aspirin?"  
  
"Uh, yes. One second." He rushed off to the bathroom, with Dawn in his arms.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"So, have you remembered yet?"  
  
"No. Nothing." Buffy pouted.  
  
"Seriously? I know that something worked. I felt something snap!"  
  
"Are you sure that wasn't you? You're not looking too hot."  
  
"This headache is awful! Maybe some rest will do me good." Willow got up from her spot on the floor, and started getting ready for bed. It had been all day since Willow had done that spell, and had the headache. But Buffy couldn't remember anything she hadn't before. She sighed, and got Dawn ready for bed, rocking her, then setting her in the beat up, second hand crib Willow had gone out and bought before Buffy had come back to the dorm. Of course, being the smart witch as she was, she had also put up sound proofing spells around the room, so as not to disturb their neighbors.  
  
Once her baby was settled, Buffy climbed into bed, and turned off the lights.  
  
The digital numbers on the clock by her bedside switched to 9:00, pm.  
  
"Night, Will."  
  
"Night Buffy. Night Dawnie!"  
  
When Buffy closed her eyes, she was sound asleep. The grueling schedule of mother, slayer, and student was taking its toll on her, both mind and body. Now that she was asleep, the memories she was trying so hard to remember could bubble to the surface.  
  
It was just flashes and thoughts. The Mohra demon. Blood on Angel's hand, mixing with his. Kissing in the sunlight. Making out on the table. Being carried to the bed. Eating ice cream and other goodies in bed. Fighting a demon. Crying, clinging to him. White blankness. The words, "I'll never forget!" came to her. And then she and Angel, standing in his office, when the Mohra demon came crashing through. He killed it, and she left. Then Angel holding her baby.  
  
She woke in a drenching sweat, confused. She looked at her clock, and then scrambled out of bed.  
  
She walked down the street, Dawn finally back asleep in the little pouch carrier thing Willow had found when she had gone baby shopping for her. If she knew him at all, then she knew where he was.  
  
She found him right where she expected, sitting by a fire in the mansion, never mind that it was hotter than hell outside. Well, maybe not, she'd never been to hell.  
  
"What does Mohra blood do, Angel?" She startled him. He had been deep in thought, and he jumped up at her voice. "And don't lie to me."  
  
"Buffy, what are you doing here? It's the middle of the night!"  
  
"Tell me what it does!" she yelled at him.  
  
He sighed. He knew that she knew. "Regenerative properties. Can even bring the dead back to life."  
  
She just stared. She had no idea. Well, some idea. Something Willow had told her came back to her, 'I knew it! Well, not as if I had the slightest idea, but I knew something was up!'  
  
"Why did you tell me?! You knew, didn't you?! And why don't I remember?!" she was beyond reasoning with, he saw, but he tried anyway.  
  
"I am the only one who remembers that day, because...because I had them redo the day."  
  
"They?"  
  
"The Oracles. They work for the Powers. The Mohra blood made me human. And we talked it over, and then we spent the day together, in bed. And then I got a trace of the Mohra, and I went after it. I almost died. I would have, if you hadn't found me. And you took a beating too. And it said that more were coming. An army was on its way. And I knew that you couldn't do it alone. I couldn't fight, couldn't help you. I was alive, but if you weren't...I couldn't live with myself, Buffy. You life was more important than mine.  
  
"So I went to the Oracles, made them change me back. Redo the whole day. I was the only one who was supposed to remember. But somehow . . . . . whether on purpose, or not, it didn't work right. You got pregnant. And I'm sorry. It's my fault; I messed up your life. I'm sorry. I never meant to harm you in any way. I love you Buffy." He expected her to blow up. Yell, scream, holler. But she didn't. She deflated, almost collapsed in on herself. He rushed over to her, and helped her sit down, careful not to jostle Dawn.  
  
"She...she was a product of love?"  
  
"Yes. She was a product of love. She still is." She rested her head against his chest, and closed her eyes, trying to block out the knowledge. But it didn't help. Her mind was free to let loose the memories, and that's what it did. She saw it all. Fighting with him, almost sleeping with him in the tunnel, stopping herself. The tension, as they split up. The pure joy, as she saw him walking towards her, and that kiss. The long, awkward silences, the even awkwarder talks. Jumping on him, him throwing everything on the table to the floor. Their hours in bed together. Watching him go and get stuff from the fridge, eating it right there in the bed, who cares about crumbs?  
  
His long absence, the literal pain of being away from him. His decision. Her reaction. Clinging to him, kissing him, telling him she'd never forget. She couldn't. A minute wasn't long enough. She could actually feel his heart beneath her hand one last time. And then the white. And then back to what she really remembered.  
  
She couldn't take it anymore. She broke down crying. Everything she had wished for, everything she had wanted...ripped away from her. She had even dreamt of having kids with him, one day, but she had never thought that he'd still be a vampire. Her body still quivered, from time to time, to be touched like he had touched her. Riley was great, but nobody could touch her like Angel could. And now she had the memories of how he had.  
  
He held her, rocking her gently, as she cried her heart and soul out. She didn't quiet for a long time, and he kissed her hair, and just held her, rocking her, whispering sweet nothings in her ear as she cried. Finally, her sobs lessened, and her breathing calmed, and she slept.  
  
He lifted her, and the sleeping infant on her chest, and carried her to the makeshift bed he had set up for himself. He laid her on it, and undid the straps securing their child to her. He was gentle, and neither stirred, as he adjusted the straps and put the contraption on himself. Buffy shivered, and he wrapped her in a blanket.  
  
He then grabbed one for himself, and sat on the floor, across from the bed, where he could watch her. He wrapped the blanket mostly around Dawn; he did not need the added warmth. Just having her on top of him kept him warmer than he had in a long time.  
  
She swam up through the warmth at around 2 a.m. Something was calling her, forcing her to wake up. She tried to roll it off, but it was insistent. As she got closer to consciousness, she realized it was a baby crying, that woke her. Then she remembered Dawn.  
  
She sat up, putting her arms across her chest, to find the baby gone. She opened her eyes, and searched franticly for her child. What she found made her smile. Angel sat on the floor, wrapped in a blanket, with a crying Dawn on his chest. He was asleep, and she guessed he was dead to the world, literally. She climbed out of the bed, and crept over, sitting beside them. She tried to sooth her child, but she was hungry and cold.  
  
She was careful to unwrap the child, and found that she was in her pouch thing. She fought with that, and finally got her out. She sat on the bed, and began to feed her child.  
  
As Angel slept, he was aware of very few things. One of those few was Buffy scent, and another was the scent of his daughter, and her warmth against his chest. Sometime during the night, Buffy scent got stronger, and then the warmth left him, and the scents moved farther away. It was when his body temperature leveled with the cold stone floor did he wake up. He could smell both his daughter, and her mother still in the room, and also the smell of mother's milk.  
  
He stood up slowly. The good thing about being dead was limbs didn't fall asleep on you. He saw her back, and heard the noise of suckling. He walked over to the bed, and sat behind her. She started at the shift of the bed, and he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. He shifted positions, and she leaned against his chest. She sighed inaudibly, as she sat with her true love, and their daughter.  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
Review please! 


	6. Part Six

Divine Interference  
  
Part Six  
  
Posted: April 13, 2004  
  
Author's notes: Here's your promised update! And I just have to do Reader Responses, and then you can start reading the real thing!  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Kate: I'm glad you like it. This is your review from Chapter Four, so you already know how I had Buffy find out, but I wanted to thank you for reviewing!  
  
Kimiaja: I try not to bash characters. So he's just gonna sort of disappear I think. I really don't know what's going to happen to Riley, but I think he's still going to leave with the Initiative. And I'm glad you like Phae.  
  
Bluie: glad you like it, lol.  
  
Bashipper: Yeah, she found out, and we're going to get a bit more information in this chapter as well, things will really start to move along, hopefully!  
  
Grace: Yeah, I liked the mansion scene too. This story is so much fun to write, I hope you all have as much fun reading, as I do writing! Lol.  
  
And here's your regularly scheduled update!  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
When Willow woke the next morning, she freaked. Buffy wasn't in her bed, the bed was unmade, and Dawn was gone. It was early Sunday morning, but Buffy didn't go to church, she thought religion was freaky. So then where was she and the baby?  
  
At half past nine, Buffy walked through the door, her clothes rumpled.  
  
"Thank the Goddess!" Willow cried. "You weren't here when I woke up, and I began to freak!"  
  
"Sorry, Will. I-the spell worked. I remembered, as a dream, and I saw the whole thing. Well, big parts. I had to fill in the rest. I found out who Dawn's dad was, so I had to go talk to him. He already knew. But then, he would."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Angel."  
  
"Seriously? How? Well, I know how, but his soul..."  
  
"Nine months ago, after Thanksgiving, when I went to visit dad, a demon's blood got into a cut, or something, and it made him human. And, well . . . .he was human, and I was there, and his soul was firmly attached . . . .we are-were in love. He had the day turned back, to save me, so I wouldn't have to fight alone, and he was supposed to be the only one that remembered. When I found out, I was in shock, and then denial . . . . Then I started crying, and I fell asleep over there. I'm really sorry for worrying you."  
  
"Oh, that's ok. I guess I just got a glimpse of motherhood. I was so certain that something was wrong. I knew you wouldn't just leave in the middle of the night like that."  
  
"I think I knew all along, who the father was." She murmured.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"When he first came to visit, against my better judgment, since we weren't on the best of terms, I let him hold Dawn. And it just felt so . . .. right, standing there, while he held my child." Willow nodded for her to continue, as she took care of the child. "I think that I didn't want to believe it. Admitting Angel was, and is her father, means that I would have to admit I still care for him, in a big way, and by admitting that, I'm only setting myself up for heartbreak.  
  
"I thought I had found the solution; Riley is an all around nice guy. He genuinely cares for me, and he'd never do anything to hurt me. If any heartbreaking was to happen, it would be me doing it. And, I like him. I don't love him like I love Angel, a love like him comes once in a lifetime, I think, but I care for Riley. I never wanted to break his heart."  
  
"And now you have to," Willow said slowly, "right?"  
  
"I have to tell him the truth, I can't hide this from him. When Angel's around, it's like nothing else matters, Will. I've told you this, before, haven't I?" Willow shrugged, and Buffy sighed. "When Angel's around, even the worst bad day, even the most evil a villain, there's nothing we can't face, with him by my side. Stand him and Riley side by side, and it's hard to remember just what I see in Riley." She looked down at her small child, red from fighting the diaper change.  
  
"You have a problem there." Willow pointed out.  
  
"How am I going to tell him?"  
  
"Just be honest with him. He may be hurt, but it's better than him not trusting you."  
  
"That's what I was afraid you'd say," she murmured, settling in to feed her baby.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Buffy. I just wanted to check up on you. You left pretty wigged out."  
  
"I don't know why, Angel. I have a daughter that one of my best friend's doesn't even know about yet, and her father is a 244 year old vampire, who I stopped seeing over a year ago."  
  
"I know this is hard to accept, Buffy."  
  
"No, Angel, you don't know. I loved you, yes, but I am so over-stretched right now, I couldn't tell you what I wanted to eat, never mind what I wanted to do with my life. I'm still not over you leaving me, Angel. And now we have a daughter together?! How am I supposed to take this?!" She ranted. He went over and picked their child up from her crib.  
  
"Believe it or not, Buffy, I dislike this as much as you do. I'm 244 years old; I'm not supposed to be having kids. And I found out about her after you did. I hate that I've messed up your life, and your relationships with people you care about." He cradled the baby.  
  
"I don't dislike it, I never said that! I'm just . . . . .I'm so confused." She sat on her bed, and Angel sat on Willow's currently unoccupied bed. She was out doing what Buffy called 'witchy stuff' with Tara.  
  
"I'm always here, even to listen, Buffy."  
  
"No, it's all to long and complicated." She sighed.  
  
"I currently have forever, unless you plan on staking me, so I think we have time." She nodded, and began pouring out her heart to him. It was long and complicated, with many questions, like, "What are we going to tell her when she's older? What are we going to tell her about you?" and, "How can I get through this year of school, while I have slaying, and a baby to raise?"  
  
Angel listened silently, while Buffy ranted and raved, sobbed and cried, pondered and groused. He then placed a reassuring hand on her knee, and she let him scoop her up in his arms, since they were currently free, Dawn had been placed down for a nap sometime ago.  
  
"I can't help you with sorting out your feelings. I know I love you, and I hope that you still love me, and I love our daughter. And I have responsibilities in LA, but I'd like to be here for her as much as possible."  
  
"You can't keep driving here everyday, after sunset, Angel. It's just not practical."  
  
"But I can't not know my daughter. I know that you have plans with Giles and Willow, and whoever, but like it or not, being the slayer puts you at a high risk."  
  
"So does you being a vampire! I mean I'm harder to kill than your type, seeing as I'm still here, and they aren't."  
  
"But I'm not them." She nodded, sighing.  
  
"You have a better chance of seeing her grow up than I do!" She pouted. He kissed her forehead.  
  
"We both have equal chance of seeing her grow up." He said, hugging her tighter. "Buffy...I have to go back to LA for a bit. And...I want you and Dawn to come with me."  
  
"Why?" she was taken aback.  
  
"I want you near me. And maybe a vacation will do you good. Wes and Cordy work for me, and a few faces you don't know, Gunn, and The Host. But maybe getting off this hell-well, mouth, might do both of you some good. I don't like the thought of her growing up on the hell mouth, but we have no choice, I know. And...I sort of want to show you guys off. I know that we're not anything. But Dawn is my child, and after being dead for 244 years, I never thought I'd get to have children, and it's the one thing I miss most about being human. What do you say?"  
  
"Uh...oh...I'll go." She smiled slightly. "I've got to tell Giles, about you, too, and Willow, and Mom, and oh, I should tell Xander about Dawn in general. And Riley. What am I going to tell him? I have to tell him something!" She started to freak, but then calmed herself, "When are you leaving?"  
  
"Tonight, or tomorrow morning. You go make the rounds, and I'll stay here with Dawn."  
  
"You sure? She's been fussy lately. Well, she's less than a week old, but something's off. Maybe it is the hell mouth."  
  
"I'm sure I'm sure. But...ah, take my cell phone. I never use it, and I turn it off, and forget about it."  
  
"Thanks." She smiled at him, taking the phone. She went to do what she had to. Xander freaked, a bit. But he was her best friend to the end, and wanted to be apart of Dawn's life. She hugged him, and then went to see her mom. She was saving Riley for last. Everybody else wouldn't be as miffed as he would. Both her mom and Giles took the news with closed faces, she didn't know what they were thinking, but they hugged her, and wished her the best of luck on her little vacation.  
  
She couldn't find Willow, but she would leave a note if she didn't get in touch with the witch. Then she sighed, and headed towards Riley's dorm. He was the one that she really hated to talk to, mostly because she didn't want to hurt him. She thought she loved him, but there was no way she could focus on a relationship with everything going on.  
  
She didn't tell him about Angel being the father, just that he knew, and he was going to be around, because she wanted him to be around. She also told him, with some regret, that she couldn't be in a relationship, it would be unfair for both of them. He tried to argue, but she silenced him. He had to have known that she was slipping away from him, had to have known this was coming; he did not fight it as hard as she thought he would, or have liked him to. She now knew that it just wasn't to be, no matter how she had hoped. Heart sore and crestfallen, she turned away from him, forever.  
  
It was a very subdued slayer that returned to her child, and her father. He didn't ask how it went, because it was written clearly on her face, as she brushed by him, and held her baby close to her breast.  
  
"It wasn't as if I loved him. Not like I loved you. But I thought . . . .I thought he'd fight it a bit more, I guess." She said quietly. He came up behind her and held her to him.  
  
"He's just a boy, Buffy, and you barely knew him." He tried to console her.  
  
"I know... I just..." She shook her head, ending the conversation.  
  
~ * ~  
  
They left early that morning. Angel drove until the sun came up, and then he sat in the back with Dawn while Buffy dove. She was apprehensive about driving, she had just barely gotten her license, and had no chance of really practicing, but Angel couldn't drive, and Dawn certainly couldn't. It was up to her.  
  
She drove carefully, to be certain, and it only took a few hours to get there. Once there, Angel pulled what Buffy could only call a Spike, where he hid under a not too concealing blanket, and ran inside, while she carried Dawn in, leisurely, looking at the office building.  
  
When she got inside, Cordy and Wesley were waiting for her. After greetings, mostly iffy ones, not sure where they stood with each other, not sure on what terms they were on, Cordy and Wesley were introduced to Dawn. Buffy looked to Angel, on how exactly to explain Dawn to them, but he took it upon himself.  
  
"Cordelia, Wesley, this is Dawn. She's my, well, our daughter." As Wesley and Cordelia looked at Angel in a mixture of horror and confusion, Buffy set the carrier down onto the desk. "When Buffy came to visit me, after Thanksgiving, by some demon blood, I became human. I had the day restarted, because it was clear Buffy was going to die, without my help. Somehow, she got pregnant." Cordelia and Wesley nodded, though it was clear they either weren't pleased, or very confused.  
  
"Angel wanted me to come with him, to get away from the hellmouth." Buffy said, still busy with Dawn. She figured they'd want to know that.  
  
"Are...are you staying?" Cordelia asked.  
  
"No. The hell mouth needs me, if only to keep it dormant. I can't stay here." She didn't look at Angel when she said this. They hadn't figured out how this was going to work. She knew that they couldn't be together, but he was going to insist on being apart of her life, and she just didn't know how it was going to work. "Angel, she's tired, and I was up most of the night." She said, turning to him, hoping he'd get the hint.  
  
"Oh, uh, Cordy, could you show her to...my room? Unless you want to leave, we could get you a hotel-"  
  
"Angel, it's fine." Cordelia motioned for her to follow, though Buffy knew the way.  
  
"So, uh, what's new in good old Sunny D?" Cordelia asked, after Buffy had fed Dawn, and was now rocking her.  
  
"Nothing much. Demons, vampires, impending doom and destruction."  
  
"Oh, yeah, I forgot, you have no social life." Cordelia jabbed. But Buffy didn't take the bait. Cordelia was still so much like she had been pre- slayer days. "So, uh, how's Willow? And, uh...Xander?" Buffy noticed she didn't put either of them down.  
  
"Good. Will's less computer gal, more wiccan gal, and she and Tara seem pretty cozy. Xander's doing construction now, and he's got some guy pals, besides us girls. Less and less Scooby gang stuff for them, more and more real life stuff." The arguments that they had had, all due to Spike, came back to her. Yes, they had made up, and she knew they were behind her 100%, but they still had their own lives they needed to live.  
  
"Is Giles still...Giles?"  
  
"He's not so British looking, still very bookish, though." She stopped moving, and Dawn whimpered. "Shh. Shh." She started swaying her hips again. "How have you been?"  
  
"Good. Working with Angel is...interesting. Mind numbing headaches, demonic pregnancies. But it's really not all that bad, as a side job, until I hit the big time. If he'd just learn to use his cell phone, it would be less dangerous, but it's not unlike high school."  
  
"Good, I'm glad to hear that."  
  
"She's so cute, Buffy. I don't envy you in the least, all the pain and stretch marks, but you are still lucky."  
  
Buffy smiled. Same old Cordy. But then she sobered. "How am I lucky? I don't know the first thing about raising a child. I killed my goldfish! Add the whole not living to see 21, and know knowing you're pregnant until you actually go into labor, yeah I can see why you'd think that." She said, meaner than she really meant to, but she didn't care.  
  
"Well, sorry." Cordy said haughtily.  
  
"Cordelia... I'm sorry. Everything's so...messed up. I'm a nineteen year old, single mother, with a life that's now dependant on me, and I have a life expectancy of less than two years. I've been doing really well in school, too. I never asked for this, but I guess I didn't really have a choice."  
  
"I'm sorry." She actually sounded it.  
  
"It's ok. I've been through worse. I'll deal. That's what I do, right?" Dawn was finally asleep, so she laid her on the bed, between the shored up blankets. Then she herself sat on the bed. "Cordy, I'm kinda tired. I don't mean to kick you out, but she only sleeps so long. I'd like to get some rest, while I can."  
  
"Oh sure! No problem!" Cordelia headed to the door. "We'll catch up later, ok?"  
  
"Yeah." Buffy smiled wanly. Once she was gone, Buffy kicked off her shoes and lay on the bed.  
  
After awhile, Angel came down, and sat on the bed next to her. She tried to pretend to be asleep, but he just sat there, seemingly content to just watch her. She rolled over and looked up at him.  
  
"I want you and Dawn to move in with me." She just stared at him. He had never been so...well, un-cryptic.  
  
"H-here?" she choked out.  
  
"No, no. Sunnydale." He sighed. "I don't want you living in that dorm room. I don't want her to grow up there. Too many germs and stuff. She'll have immunities, but I think it's too public. I'm going to buy an apartment. I want you and Dawn to live there."  
  
"What about Willow? I can't just leave her alone."  
  
He thought a minute, and then nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea." She looked at him warily. "I just don't want the demon world to know that you had a baby. I don't expect you to give her up, or hide her, but she's so young, and she'll be in so much danger...If Willow lived there, she could possibly thought to be...it could be assumed that-"  
  
"So they'd think that she was the child of the slayer's best friend?! Everyone or thing knows Will and I are tight, Angel! She goes patrolling with me all the time! Being the slayer's kid is safer than being her friend's kid! Besides that they can probably smell her on me. I'm breast feeding, and even I can smell it."  
  
"Fine." He sighed. "I was way out of line. But I want you somewhere safe. Safer than a dorm room."  
  
"What's going on? This isn't like you."  
  
He sighed. "I've done some bad things in my existence. Some you can't even dream of. But doing this to you...I can't just disappear, just leave the picture, and not be apart of her life. It would be cruel to both of you."  
  
"So you're gonna force me to move in with you?"  
  
"I'm not forcing you to do anything. I just want to make sure you're taken care of. It's the least you deserve." He looked into her eyes, and she returned his gaze, but it soon became too much, and she looked away. He sighed and looked down at the comforter.  
  
"Ok." She murmured.  
  
"What?" he hadn't heard her clearly.  
  
"Ok. I'll let you buy an apartment. And I'll live there. But the more I think about this, it sounds like you want back in my life, and I don't know if I can let you. You left me. And not just once, but it truly felt like more than that. After you broke up with me, every time I saw you, I wondered if it would be the last. And now-now here you are, acting like it never happened, and I just can't do it!"  
  
"I wanted you to have a life outside of demons and darkness!" he forgot to whisper.  
  
"Well now I do! Now I have a baby; a life dependant on me! Are you happy now?!"  
  
"Do you think I like seeing you this way?!"  
  
"I honestly don't know what to think right now."  
  
"I hate this! I hate your haggard appearance, I hate that you are as tired as you look. I hate the circles under your eyes. I hate that you can't sleep the night, whatever's left of it after school, and homework, and patrolling, and that tiny sliver of a social life you somehow manage to fit in! I hate my involvement in your situation-"  
  
"Are you sure about that?" she asked, a glimmer in her eyes that he hadn't seen in a long time; it stopped him dead. "Are you sure you hate the day she was conceived?"  
  
"God no! The memories have kept me going through the darkest of times, when nothing else could. And I don't hate her. She's everything I've dreamed of being able to have with you. But not now!" he turned and began pacing. "After the Shanshu, maybe, but not now, not when you have so much ahead of you-"  
  
"What's a Shanshoe?" she asked.  
  
Damnit!  
  
"Long and complicated prophecy. Cryptic doesn't begin to describe it. But from what I could tell, I have a huge part to play in The apocalypse. The big one. No clue when or where, but if I...whatever I'm supposed to do, I guess I...well, not totally sure on the details." He thought better than getting her hopes up. His were high enough for the both of them. She nodded.  
  
He looked at her, and saw just how exhausted she was, not just in her eyes, but the way she held her body. He hesitated, but then sat on the bed and took her into his arms. He then lay down, so she was in front of him. She tensed at his first initial touch, but she allowed him to maneuver her body. She shifted so she was more comfortable, and then soon fell asleep.  
  
He lay there, for who knows how long, just listening to the rhythmic breathing of his child, and his love.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Ah!"  
  
"What?" Willow looked up from her book.  
  
"Buffy was, ah, right, as strange as that sometimes seems. There is a prophecy regarding Dawn." He showed her the passage. It was in another language, as usual. "When the child of mortal enemies is born, and The Beast walks the earth, the slayer shall have a choice." He looked up from the book. "That doesn't sound uh, prophecy-ish, lack of a better word." Willow just grinned. "Then it makes reference to another prophecy...one that I do not have access to, of course. The council might have it in their files, but I doubt they'd share..." Willow tuned him out Council this, Council that. Sun shoe something or other; it made no difference to her.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Cordelia and Wesley were puttering about the office, mostly in shock at the day's events, when the door opened, and a stunning blond walked through.  
  
"Welcome to Angel Investigations. How may I help you?" Cordelia asked. Wesley was too preoccupied getting his tongue back into his mouth.  
  
"I would like to hire you, to find something that was stolen from me."  
  
"Ok," Cordelia offered her a seat then took the one behind the desk, "Well, I can't guarantee that we'll take your case, our boss is strict, but if you'll just fill out these forms, and I'll be right back." She smiled as she stood up. She mimed to Wesley to keep her busy. He was confused, before she pointed forcefully downstairs, and then made a halo around her head. He nodded, and as she headed towards the stairs, she heard him offer her coffee.  
  
She told Angel about the client, and then left him to extract himself from the blond slayer. He slowly did just that, and then followed her.  
  
"Hello. I'm Angel," he said, shaking the woman's hand.  
  
"Glory."  
  
"So, what can we do for you?" Angel asked.  
  
"I'm trying to locate something that was stolen from me. It's of great importance and I want it back."  
  
"And what would this be?"  
  
"Mystical energy. Also known as The Key." 


	7. Part Seven

Divine Interference  
  
Part Seven  
  
Posted: April 16, 2004  
  
Author's notes: There was an extra part in here, somewhere, but I had to take it out, because it just didn't fit. It wasn't all that good, and didn't add to the story at all, so I guess it's good. But this also leaves me with a chapter that has very little of what I can only call me in it. It starts out original, but then it gets not so, and sorta evens out in the end. Its mostly info you would all know if you've seen Season Five, which I think you all have. Oh, and if you haven't, then this whole story has spoilers!!!  
  
SPOILER ALERT!!!  
  
Lol. But anyway, tell me what you think, if I need to do something to it to make it more original, or if it's ok the way it is. Thanks!  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Ok, I've been going through my "archives." Yes, I keep every single review that I get. So I'm a sad looser, who cares? I don't remember if I've answered these, so I'm going to answer them here! Lol. Sorry!  
  
Kate (review from Chapter 3): well, I think you know what's going on now, lol!  
  
*removes flag from message...*  
  
WW: hey, this is an actual new review, lol! Well, sorta. Whatever. I'm crazy at the moment.... And yeah, I feel bad for Buffy, her life tends to suck, doesn't it? And yeah, your on the right track, but SHH!! We haven't gotten to that part of the story yet! That's probably going to be next chapter, though if someone else has figured it out, then I must not be that obscure, right? And that's good!  
  
Bluie: Yep, still too lazy to write out your whole name, but you know who you are, at least I hope you do, lol. I'm glad you liked the ending. I really wanted to get some problems in there, before this thing goes on for too long. And you know me, have to be original. It's like my....huh, can't remember the word, oh well.  
  
Riley does know about what happened with Angel, if I remember correctly because she told him about it while he was hiding in what I think was the old high school, and then she went to LA, which would have been the whole thing with Faith, and then Angel went to Sunnydale, to clear things up, so they've fought once, and he knows all about Angel, thanks to Xander. Which is just going to add fuel to the fire, lol! I think someone reviewed about Riley's graceful exit, but he's not gone yet, just going. There's still one more scene with Riley, and I might just use your idea, Bluie, since I really like it! But that will be in a couple chapters, I have yet to finish writing the scene, and I like to have some story 'on tap' in case you guys flood me with reviews, and I have to reward you. And yes I said 'on tap' Friends in Low Places, by Garth Brooks is on...."Oh I've got friends in low places. Where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases. My blues away. Yeah, I'll be ok ok. Oh I'm not big on social graces, think I'll slip on down to the oasis. Oh I've got friends. In lo-ow places!  
  
Lol....hehehehe...  
  
Oh, lol! Here's the review about Riley's graceful exit...lol....  
  
Kimiaji3: well, you may be in the minority, but you're not alone. I don't hate Riley, or even Spike. I hate when they're with Buffy. There's a difference. By themselves, they're not doing too much harm, but when they're with Buffy, they're keeping her from Angel, and that's what pisses me off! And yeah, I hated Parker, but I didn't mind Owen or Scott, too bland and human for my taste, but oh well...  
  
And I'm glad you like my Angel. And now that you bring it up...I'm glad that he reminds you so much of him in Angel-tS season one, since this is supposed to take place that summer, and season two. I haven't totally seen all of season one, which is why I'm still sorta in the dark about the whole prophecy thing, but oh well, I'll manage somehow.  
  
Melluvben: I can't answer all your questions, but like WW, you are on the right track. Once again, SHH! We're not there yet! You'll find out soon, probably in the next chapter, but not this one. The questions/comments I can comment on, though are these: yeah, the whole living with him, I think you probably thought as I wanted Buffy to, but as the story goes on, that might change, just a bit....*cough*hint*cough*  
  
I'm glad you like the story, though. I love writing it!  
  
And that's the last of the reviews this time around! I want to thank you all for reading, and thank you even more for reviewing. It makes me smile with your comments, like you weren't suspecting something, because that's what I was originally going for, and if it happened to you, then others might have the same reaction! Lol.  
  
And I just want to say, for those of you who aren't reviewing, for one reason or another, your comments don't have to be about ways to fix the story. If any of you were unlucky enough to have me review your stories, then you'd know that my reviews are generally my thoughts while reading the story, and barely ever make sense! Lol. But if you're reading, though not reviewing, I still luv ya! Just drop me a note every once in a while, ok? So I know you're there?  
  
Well, here's the not so long awaited update! Hope you like!  
  
(Wow, two pages of author's notes...poor you guys!)  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
Buffy was dreaming; she knew that much. What she didn't know what where the hell she was. She saw fleeting images, guys running, in robes, and they were more than scared, and then more robed guys, in a circle, chanting over a doll. Then a shadowy figure killing them all, but not before they finished the spell. She hoped it wasn't a protection spell; they should get their money back.  
  
The shadow thing howled in anger. And then what she saw next made her heart stop. The thing was holding a screaming Dawn.  
  
She woke with a start, panting. Dawn was crying. She picked up the child and soothed her, before realizing Angel was gone. She smoothed down her hair the best she could with one hand, and then headed upstairs.  
  
Angel was in the middle of an interview, with a hot chick, but once he sensed her presence, he turned to her. "Buffy." He said, and the others looked at her.  
  
"Oh, sorry to interrupt." Something in her voice caught him.  
  
"What's wrong? What is it?"  
  
"Nothing-A bad dream. Nothing to worry about." He stared at her a moment, then went back to the client.  
  
"Oh, Glory, this is Buffy; Buffy, Glory." He introduced them Buffy nodded.  
  
"Nice to meet you."  
  
"Likewise, I'm sure." And as the others turned back to the conversation, she took Dawn downstairs.  
  
Angel came down in a little bit, to find her staring off into space, while sitting at the table. Dawn's carrier was on the tabletop. He sat down opposite her, even though he could barely see her over the carrier.  
  
"What was your dream about?" He asked quietly.  
  
"Monk guys. Running. From . . . . . . . something. Then some were chanting, doing one hell of a spell, it looked like. And then they were all dead. And I saw the figure that did it; that killed them all. I-I didn't get a good look, though. And then . . . . .then she was holding Dawn."  
  
"She? I thought you said you didn't get a good look?"  
  
"Her nails. Manicured. Red polish. Either a girl, or a VERY effeminate guy."  
  
"So someone's after Dawn."  
  
"That's what it looks like. She's not even a week old! Already someone's after her!" she put her head down on the table. "I was just sitting here, looking at her. If something- If I lost her-" he could hear the unshed tears that burned her throat.  
  
He slid from his chair and crouched beside her. "I will not let anything happen to her, I promise."  
  
"But you can't! You can't always be there for her! And neither can I! I can try, but even the slayer needs her time off!" She was close to tears now. Dangerously close.  
  
"What can I tell you, Buffy? I want to make it better!"  
  
"Lie to me." She murmured.  
  
"I already did." He murmured back. He let her slid off the chair and into his lap.  
  
"I'm sorry." She wiped her eyes and nose a bit later.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because now you're wet." And I look like a wet dog, she thought.  
  
"I'll dry." He smoothed her cheek, and couldn't help but smiling.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Your mascara ran." She looked at him in horror. "Here." He smiled, wiping it gently away with his already wet shirt. He tried to hide his laughter.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You just surprise me, is all. You're up night and day with Dawn, and no offence, but it looks like you dressed in under two minutes, but you still manage to look stunning."  
  
"Is it that obvious, that it only took me two minutes to dress?" she asked, pouting, but then she cracked a smile; one that for just a moment, reached her eyes. But then she remembered the problems, and the danger ahead. "I have to call Giles. He may have some insight. Hopefully." She said, with a hint of worry in her voice, before going off to find the phone.  
  
Angel watched her go, and then picked up Dawn. He settled her into his arms. He didn't know what it was, but having her there, in his arms, against his chest, felt so right. He breathed an unnecessary breath. She smelled so soft and sweet. Just like her mother, he seemed to have fallen deeply in love with the child, as a father should love his daughter.  
  
~ * ~  
  
July turned to August, and soon September, with little information on Buffy's dream, or the ever-illusive Key. But Angel, like promised, had found an apartment he liked, and Buffy liked it too, so the three girls moved in. It was only half a mile from the campus, and two miles from Giles' place.  
  
They settled into a fairly routine routine; Buffy would drop Dawn off with Giles before class in the morning. Giles would watch her until Buffy came and got her around four. She'd take her back to the apartment, where Willow could meet her around nightfall, so she could go patrolling. Occasionally, Willow would take the baby to Tara's, or Tara would come to the apartment. And then there were those rare occasions when Xander would watch her, while Willow went out, and Buffy was patrolling.  
  
At almost two months of age, Buffy was still breast-feeding her, but she had gotten comfortable using a breast pump, which gave her a lot more freedom. They always kept a lot of extra breast milk in the fridge, though Buffy didn't want to speak the reason for doing so out loud, in case it made it all the more real.  
  
Every Friday night, Angel would come to the apartment, unless he had a huge case on the line. He would either take Dawn while Buffy went out with Willow and Xander, or Joyce would take her granddaughter, and Angel would accompany them. He would stay the weekend, and then head back to LA Sunday night/Monday morning, before dawn.  
  
Buffy would occasionally see Riley around campus, but he avoided her. It hurt; to know that he did it on purpose, but every day the pain went away a little more, and it wasn't the pain she had felt when Angel had left, or even her father. He was just a guy she had liked, and couldn't be with. Story of her life.  
  
She knew that she spent very little time with her child during the week, and that was why she dedicated her weekends almost exclusively to Dawn. Sure, nights, she went out, she didn't want to be a shut-in mom, but she didn't want to be one of those neglective moms either.  
  
So that's how things were, two weeks before school had started, when in the middle of the night, a new player was moving into Sunnydale.  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
Author's Note: This is where we get . . . . . well, it gets difficult! Hang with me!  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
The next night, Buffy went patrolling in one of the many cemeteries. As usual, cemetery plus dark, equaled vampires.  
  
Buffy punched one such creature, almost enjoying her forced occupation. She punched him several times and then grabbed his shoulders and kneed him. He got up and she was on his back. He threw her down. She got up and charged, ducked a punch, punched and then kicked him. She tried to kick again but he grabbed her and lifted her over his head, then threw her down. She got up again, jumped on him with her legs around his neck. He threw her down; she flipped him over and then staked him. Buffy stood up, looking satisfied, and began to stride away purposefully. She walked between the gravestones and suddenly stopped, whirls around.  
  
"Very impressive hunt." A man walking out of the darkness said. He was very thin and pale, had long hair, and spoke with an accent. "Such power."  
  
"That was no hunt. That was just another day on the job." Buffy said, being her usual self, ready for attack, incase this got ugly. She saw that the man was wearing a long flowing cloak and had long flowing hair. He walked toward Buffy. "Care to step up for some overtime?"  
  
"We're not going to fight."  
  
"Do you *know* what a slayer is?"  
  
"Do you?" The guy smirked at her. Buffy looked at him with intrigued.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"I apologize. I assumed you knew. I am Dracula." Buffy's eyes widen and she looks delighted.  
  
"Get out! So lemme get this straight. You're ... 'Dracula.' The guy, the Count."  
  
"I am."  
  
"And you're sure this isn't just some fan boy thing? Cause ... I've fought more than a couple of pimply overweight vamps that called themselves Lestate."  
  
Dracula is getting annoyed. "You know who I am. As I would now without question that you are Buffy Summers."  
  
"You're heard of me?"  
  
"Naturally. You're known throughout the world."  
  
"Naw. Really?"  
  
"Why else would I come here? For the sun? I came to meet the renowned ... killer."  
  
"Yeah, I prefer the term slayer. You know, killer just sounds so..."  
  
"Naked?" "Like I ... paint clowns or something. I'm the good guy, remember?"  
  
"Perhaps, but your power is rooted in darkness. You must feel it." Buffy frowned and pondered this for a moment.  
  
"No. You know what I feel? Bored. And I'm expected home soon, so..." She lunged at him with her stake. He dissolved into smoke. As she straightened up looking confused, he reappeared behind her. She turned, lunges again. He dissolved into smoke once more. Buffy looked around. "Okay, that's cheating."  
  
Xander and Willow walked up. "Hey Buff, what's up?" Xander asked.  
  
"You look like you just-" Willow started.  
  
"Get out of here. Now."  
  
"Fine, but I was gonna give you a sip of my double-mint mocha, but..." Dracula reappeared behind Xander.  
  
"Behind you." Buffy warned. Willow and Xander turn and see Dracula.  
  
"Hi." Willow says.  
  
"Nice. Look who's got a bad case of dark prince envy." Xander says. Behind him Buffy's holding her stake, looking concerned.  
  
"I have no interest in you. Leave us."  
  
"No, we're not going to," he stopped, and started again, in Dracula's accent, "'leave you.' And where'd you get that accent, Sesame Street?" Now he spoke as the Count on Sesame Street, "Vun, two, three -- three victims. Mwa ha ha!" Dracula just looks annoyed.  
  
"Xander, I'm pretty sure that's Dracula." Buffy whispered to him.  
  
"Wow, really?" He hurried to stand behind Buffy. "Hey, sorry, man, I was ... just jokin' around."  
  
"This is not the time." He locks eyes with Buffy. "I will see you soon." He spread his cape out and moved toward them, turning into a bat and flying over their heads as they all duck and yell. The bat flies away, squeaking. They straightened up and look around. The bat comes back and flies around Buffy's head. She covers her head with her hands.  
  
"Bat! Ooh, bat!" Buffy cries. The bat squeaks and flies away again. "What are you guys doing here? Where's Dawn?"  
  
"Giles has her. We came to bring you some icy goodness." Willow held up her iced coffee.  
  
"Come on, we have to let Giles know about this. Maybe he'll have some insight. He always does." Buffy said, and with that, she stalked off.  
  
Once at Giles, Buffy filled him in as quick as possible, with Willow and Xander, mostly Xander, adding bits and pieces. Tara and Anya showed up. After deciding on their best course of action, research now, hunt later, they all left for their own homes, to rest up. As Buffy told them, The Count encounter had wiped her out.  
  
The next morning, when Willow came into Buffy's room for advice, Buffy quickly turned her back, as she was feeding Dawn. "Buffy, it's not like I haven't seen you do that before. What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothin-" Willow spun her around, and saw the puncture in her neck "Dracula was here last night. I don't know what came over me. He said he had been searching the world over for me, for a creature's whose darkness rivaled his own. And then he said Angel wasn't worthy of me...I don't know why I let him bite me..."  
  
"Well, I did get some research done last night. He likes long slow bites that last for days. Seduction. Likes to have a connection with his victim. Likes to form a relationship with his prey, before turning them. It's not your fault, Buffy."  
  
"Yes it is. How'd he get in anyway?"  
  
"Probably because we haven't lived here long enough, it takes time for the taking up residence thing to work. And the whole Angel living here probably doesn't help."  
  
"Will- could you call Angel for me? I don't really want him around, but Dawn would be safer, if he was." Willow nodded and left, as Buffy finished feeding her child. As she got ready for the day, she put a scarf around her neck.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Dracula's there?!" Angel fumed.  
  
"Yeah, he took a chunk out of Buffy-"  
  
"How'd he get in?" He asked, confused.  
  
"How'd you know he got in?"  
  
"Dracula's like that."  
  
"You know him?"  
  
"Yeah, he owes Spike and I some money. Did either of you invite him in?"  
  
"No, we thought it was the whole we just moving in thing that let him in."  
  
"No, the barrier gets put up 48 hours after you moved in. Someone let him in."  
  
"Don't know who it was, Angel. Buffy wants you here, though, to help protect Dawn."  
  
"He went after Dawn?" now he was really concerned.  
  
"No, it's just...he was in her room, Angel. She won't admit it, but she doesn't feel safe."  
  
"I'll be there as soon as I wrap things up here."  
  
"Ok." Willow said goodbye, and hung up. She went back to Buffy's room, "Buffy, he's on his way."  
  
"Good. Will you take Dawn for a while? I'm gonna go try to find him."  
  
"Maybe that's not such a good idea, Buffy. He's bitten you; he puts his victims under a thrall, a seduction. You should stay away from him-"  
  
"No, I'm not under his thrall. And it's personal. What other info do you have on him?"  
  
"He likes rich places."  
  
"So, mansions got it. Thanks, Will."  
  
~ * ~  
  
Just after sunset, Buffy entered the last of the mansions, almost a castle. She walked through and entered a dinning like room. "I knew you'd come." He said in that accent of his.  
  
"Why? Because I'm under your thrall?" She whips out Mister Pointy and drops the dazed expression. "Well, guess again, pal."  
  
"Put the stake down."  
  
"Okay." She agrees, putting it down, then looks at her hand in surprise, "Right. That ... was not ... you." Even to herself, she sounded unconvinced. "I did that. I did that because ... I wanted to." Dracula just watches her. "Maybe I should rethink that thrall thing." She looks around nervously and gives a little whimper.  
  
He started to come near her. "Stay away from me."  
  
"Are you afraid I will bite you?" he walks slowly toward her. "Slayer, that's why you came."  
  
"No. Last night ... it's not gonna happen again. I won't let it."  
  
"Stop me. Stake me." He says, knowing she won't.  
  
"I..." she backs up from him, glancing at stake on the table. "Any minute now. Just waiting to pick up the stake!"  
  
"Do you know why you cannot resist?"  
  
"Cause you're famous?"  
  
"Because you do not want to."  
  
She shakes her head, "No. My friends-"  
  
"They're not here. They will not find us. We are alone." Buffy looks anxious. She didn't want to die, and leave Dawn without a mother. Waiting for Angel seemed to be a better plan right about now. "Always alone." Buffy shakes her head, unbelieving. She's not alone, no. Dracula begins circling her, "There is so much I have to teach you. Your history, your power ... what your body is capable of..."  
  
She shakes her head again. "I don't need to know."  
  
"You long to. And you will have eternity to discover yourself." He comes back around in front to face her. "But first ... a little taste."  
  
"I won't let you." She says, venomously.  
  
"I didn't mean for me." He holds up his arm and rolls up the sleeve.  
  
"What are you-"She's confused. The thought of dying keeps flashing through her mind.  
  
"All those years fighting us. Your power so near to our own..." he cuts his arm with a fingernail till blood wells up, "...and you've never once wanted to know what it is that we fight for?" He holds his arm out to Buffy. "Never even a taste?"  
  
"If I drink that-" her mind is going in so many different directions. When was the last time she saw mom? Did she tell Dawn that she loved her as she left? Would she ever be able to tell Angel the same? If she drank that-  
  
"I have not drunk enough for you to change. You must be near death to become one of us. And that comes only when you plead for it."  
  
"I'm not hungry." She stares at his wrist, going for disdain, but it really wasn't working well.  
  
"No. Your craving goes deeper than that." Buffy stares at him. "You think you know ... what you are ... what's to come. You haven't even begun." He whispers. Buffy looks at his arm, at his face. She took his hand in both of hers and put her mouth on the bloody wrist. "Find it. The darkness. Find your true nature." Buffy's eyes are wide.  
  
She saw visions. Herself fighting, the First Slayer. A vein with blood corpuscles rushing through it. Dawn...  
  
Buffy slowly lifts her head. "Wow." She said, softly, almost a whisper. Going for surprise, she suddenly shoves out her hand and pushes Dracula away. He lands on the table and slides across it on his back. "That was gross." She walks forward as Dracula gets to his feet.  
  
"You are resisting." Now he was the one that sounded insecure.  
  
"Looks like I am."  
  
"Come here. Come to me." He uses his hand to beckon to her.  
  
"You know, I really think the thrall has gone out of our relationship. But I want to thank you for opening up my eyes a little."  
  
"What is this?" He's dumbfounded, to why his powers are no longer working on her.  
  
"My true nature. You want a taste?" she taunts, in her true style. Dracula growls and lunges at her. She jumped over his head, whirled, kicked him, punched him twice, kicks him into a wall. He spins back, grabbed her arm, punches her and flung her across the room. She lands on the table on her back.  
  
Buffy runs across the room. She barrels into Dracula and they fall to the floor, rolling. He's on top. He punches her, she punches him, and then she grabs his shirt and flips him over. Now she's on top. She punches him a few times. Then he catches her fist and flings her off him. He's grinning. They both get up, grab each other and fall down again. Buffy's on top. She brings both her hands down but he blocks and flings her away again. She flies backward and hits the wall. She grabs him, he flips her across the table and then jumps onto it. She hits him with a chair and then sweeps his feet out from under him. He punches her. She grabs a torch and he rolls away just as she hits the table with it. They face each other across the table.  
  
"A guy like you should think about going electric. Seriously." Dracula growls and turns to smoke. Buffy looks around, sees where the smoke is converging, drops the torch and runs toward the smoke. She grabs Mister Pointy off the table as she runs, leaps to the top of the stairs, and is there to stake Dracula just as he appears from the smoke. He looks shocked. "How do you like my darkness now?" She taunted, as he exploded into dust. Dracula growls, falls down the stairs and explodes into dust. She dusted off her hands and stands there a moment, and the fog appears and begins to converge. As soon as Dracula has fully appeared, she staked him again. He gasps.  
  
"You think I don't watch your movies? You always come back." She rolled her eyes at him, as if he'd never learn. Dracula explodes into dust again. Buffy folds her arms and watches. The fog begins to collect again. "I'm standing right here! For God's sake!" She said. The fog dissipated.  
  
~ * ~  
  
She marched into Giles' house. "All gone."  
  
"Dracula?"  
  
"Yup. And Giles...I wanted to talk to you."  
  
"I, uh, actually wanted to talk to you."  
  
"You go first."  
  
"No, Buffy, I insist that you go first."  
  
She sighed. "You haven't been my watcher since my 18th birthday. And I miss you. I...I want you to be my watcher again. My mentor. I can't do this without you, Giles. Please?"  
  
He didn't even have to think on it as his plans to go back to England fled his mind. "Of course." She ran to him and hugged him.  
  
"Thank you!" 


	8. Part Eight

Divine Interference  
  
Part Eight  
  
Posted: April 19, 2004  
  
Author's notes: Ok, guys, this is LITERALLY all I've got typed. I might have a bit more that isn't typed, but I'm on a huge roll with Stolen Innocence, and almost got that done, besides that even though I'm on vacation, I'm getting up at 6 am every morning, just to get $100 on Thursday. If only JW would let me either sleep or write...yeah, I'm babysitting this kid, she's eight, and off the walls. Remind me to NOT let her have any more candy, or coffee, ok? Thanks.  
  
So this might be it for awhile, at least until Thursday, though I think I'm gonna start posting Stolen Innocence soon....  
  
Oh yeah! I'm also judging for two categories for the Barefoot Awards! Can't forget that, sheesh. So if you don't hear from me until after May 6th, or something like that, you know the reason why. I'm reading insanely long stories for someone who actually trusts my judgment on stories! And won't it be hilarious if I end up nominating this story for the next round, and they find this stuff! Lol. Poor, poor, pitiful me. All these boys won't let me be...no, wait, that's a song. Sorry!  
  
*Sigh* and my two of my favorite stories were updated today! I'm gonna end up getting behind, and then lost! ARG!  
  
Ok, here are the reader's Responses:  
  
And I still can't spell responses right...oh! I just did! Yay for me!  
  
*sigh* way too many One of a Kind reviews...can't find reviews for this.....  
  
THERE THEY ARE!!!  
  
Bluie: yeah, I thought you'd know who you are, but ah, Bluie? Xander doing Sesame Street, that was from the script....go and watch Dracula, season five a couple times, ok? It'll all be ok....we'll get you help, someday. Just not today, I'm too tired.... And I will read I am Wyatt eventually....hopefully...I can do that study hall next week! If I'm done with my judging that is...*sigh*  
  
Buffy and Giles moment...I think I wrote that myself, if I'm remembering the right one...I think I've written all of the Buffy/Giles moments in here... just too tired to think straight! Lol. But I'm glad you liked it!  
  
What? Only one review? Huh.....  
  
Yuppers, only one. Oh well. That means you get the story sooner!  
  
And for future reference, can I just ask you to review? Cuz I have a feeling I'm gonna get real.  
  
And this chapter, yet again, has some script in it. Not sure how much is mine, and how much is script, but oh well. Hopefully you should be able to tell what's mine and what's not, though I may have edited some things in the script. *sigh*  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
Life was good, few vampires each night, spending time with the gang, spending time with Dawn, spending time with Angel, no matter how much it hurt her heart.  
  
In October, after the last proprietor's death, Giles decided that it was time to get the Scooby Meetings out of his living room, and so he bought the local magic shop, renaming it the Magic Box. He even revamped the back room, making it a training space for Buffy, and Angel, when he was around.  
  
Buffy wasn't sure she liked the thought of her daughter hanging around a magic shop all day, but she really didn't have any other choice. Giles soon hired Anya, to help him with the shop, and Dawn.  
  
Buffy was patrolling one night, and she was fighting a vampire near a fence. She got thrown into the chain link fence, hitting the NO TRESSPASSING sign posted there. Just her luck she had to find a burly, Hell's Angel vampire to fight that night. No skinny, wimpy toothpicks for her. He stood menacingly over her, where she sat on the ground.  
  
"I've always wanted to kill a slayer."  
  
"And I've always wanted piano lessons. So who's surprised that we have all this unexpressed rage?" she hit him again and again. He landed a punch to the face, and she stumbled backwards, he edged forward, throwing a punch at her, this one she catches, twisting his arm around behind his back and slamming him against the fence. "But honestly, I think I'm expressing mine better. Tell ya what, you find yourself a nice anger management class..." he tries to throw her off, but she returned quickly, slamming him against the fence once more, and whipping out her stake. "I'll just jam this stake into your heart." She did so, before slipping the stake back into her pocket, "And one more for the Buffster." She started to walk away.  
  
"HEY!" a security guard called from the driveway of the building. She turned to look, only to be blinded by a flashlight. "Miss, if you're looking for one of those rave parties, I'm afraid you're late. Chased a bunch of kids out of here last night."  
  
Buffy quickly thought up a response, "Oh, right. Yeah. Darn. My fellow ravers will be so disappointed. It was my turn to bring the Bundt cake."  
  
"You know, if it was my call, I'd let you do whatever you want. It's not like anybody's using this place or nothin'. But they just don't pay me enough to argue with the boss so..." the guy said.  
  
"Already gone!" She turned to leave but the guard stopped her.  
  
"Oh, hey! Hold it, miss. Take your... whatever this is with you." He bends over, and picked up a glowing yellow orb and handed it to her. She looked at it curiously.  
  
"Thank you." She murmured.  
  
"Glow balls, huh?" he laughed, "I swear, I don't get your generation. What is that thing?"  
  
"I'll let you know as soon as I find out." She said, distracted, wondering. She turns and walks off into the night.  
  
~ * ~  
  
The next day, Buffy brought the strange glowing orb to the Magic Box, for Giles' overview.  
  
"You all right? You seem a little distracted." He asked after she had settled Dawn's carrier by the table. Willow sat across from her, keeping the baby occupied for the time being.  
  
"I didn't get much sleep last night. Dawn was up most of it, cranky."  
  
"Then leave her here, I'll take her for the day, go home and get some well deserved sleep."  
  
"Actually, I have a little Scooby-centric deal to deal with first." Buffy reached into her bag and removed the glowing yellow globe. "I put this before the group. What the hell is it?"  
  
"It appears to be paranormal in origin." Giles said, picking it up.  
  
"How can you tell?" Willow asked.  
  
"Well, it's so shiny." Giles said, an un-Giles-like statement.  
  
"I found it on patrol last night."  
  
"Well, ah, leave it here, and Dawn, and go get some sleep. We'll research, and see what we can come up with."  
  
"Yeah, we can take care of Dawnie. If I had known you were so tired, I would have offered before." Willow told her.  
  
"Thanks guys. This parenting stuff is harder than I thought it would be." Buffy said, sighing. "Bye, baby. Be good for Aunt Willow and Grampa Giles." Giles turned a pale shade of red, but Buffy ignored him as she kissed her child. She was getting so big, at four months of age.  
  
*****A/n: is she really four months already? Where have I been? Gotta check that number....later...  
  
"Do you think this could have anything to do with that prophecy?" Willow asked as she took the baby out of the carrier after Buffy had left.  
  
"Anything's possible on the hellmouth." Was his reply.  
  
"Are you going to tell her?"  
  
"She's worried enough, being a single parent. Until we find something more concrete, keep quiet, please. She's under enough stress as it is. We don't need to add to it." Willow nodded.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Buffy? Oh, I'm glad I've caught you. I think we may have underestimated what we're dealing with." Buffy sets down her things on the table, she was just getting ready to go pick up Dawn.  
  
"Go on."  
  
"We've uncovered more than expected about this orb. It's called the Dagon Sphere and it has a history going back many centuries."  
  
"What's it do?"  
  
"It's a protective device, used to ward off ancient primordial evil."  
  
"Any word on what this evil looks like?"  
  
"Unfortunately, no. This is where accounts get vague. All we've managed to uncover so far is the Dagon Sphere was created to repel That Which Cannot Be Named."  
  
****A/N: Voldemort?  
  
****** I'm sitting here, rereading it before I post, and that's all I can think of....lol.  
  
"I'm going to go back to the factory where I found it. Whoever planted this doohickey's got answers."  
  
"Buffy, you've heard me say this before, but do be careful. Anything that goes unnamed is usually an object of deep worship or great fear- maybe both."  
  
"What isn't around here?"  
  
"Maybe you should wait until Angel can go with you, Buffy. He's coming tonight, correct?"  
  
"Yeah, to spend time with his darling daughter. He can be the one that stays up all night with her, since he would anyway. Don't worry about me, ok? I'll be fine. I've got to go, ok? Bye." With that, she hung up.  
  
****A/N: *pouts* I'm currently working from the transcript for the Episode No Place Like Home, and here's my fav quote from like the whole season! You know, the "Spike, what are you doing here? In five words or less?" But it just won't work in this story. Sorry.  
  
*pouts some more*  
  
******And I'm sorry how this is going. The transcripts are all in present tense, and I always write in past, so.... things are pretty bumpy right now, but I'm not a good enough writer to fix the kinks.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Buffy snapped the chain holding the gate shut by the old building she had patrolled at the night before. She then snuck inside. Once there, she flicked on her flashlight and started exploring the musty corridors of the abandoned building. Eventually, she came across the tremendous gaping hole in the wall and the twisted remains of the tempered steel door. She examined the wreckage with concern. She shined her light over the shattered remains of the blast door, then looked deeper into the room. She sees the monk, semi-conscious and tied to the chair.  
  
"Whoa." She ran to his aid and started loosening his restraints. "It was you who planted the Dagon Sphere, right? I got it. Don't worry. I'm stronger than I look." Glory silently approached Buffy from behind. "I have had experience with stuff like this before. Best of all..." Buffy whirled around and seizes Glory by the throat. "I'm not stupid."  
  
Glory gives Buffy a withering look, wrenching Buffy's arm from her neck and backhanding the Slayer with such force that she flies 50 feet across the room and impacts the cement wall so hard she cracks it. Buffy fell to floor and looks up at Glory, stunned at her power.  
  
"You sure about that last part?" She asked.  
  
"You- you're that woman from Angel Investigations." Buffy said, standing slowly.  
  
"Yeah, what's it to ya?"  
  
Buffy went to attack her, but she slammed her into the cement wall again, face first. The wall cracked under the impact. Glory strides toward her and seized her by the shoulders. "And another thing? I just want you to know..." She slammed Buffy into a support pillar and pummeled her. "The whole "beat ya to death" thing I'm doing? It's valuable time out of life that I'm never gonna get back. Let's just hope it doesn't put me on bad terms with that guy, Angel. He is helping me, after all." Buffy tried to fight back, but Glory grabbed both her arms and wrenches them downward. Buffy cries out in pain.  
  
"Wait, I've always wanted to try this. You know that thing with worms where if you have one, you rip it in half, you got two worms? Do you think that'll work with you?" Buffy slams her head into Glory's face and breaks free. Glory cried out in shock. "You hit me! What, are you crazy?" Buffy pressed the attack, hitting and kicking for all she's worth, forcing Glory backward, but her blows seem more to offend Glory than injure her. "You can't go around hitting people. What, were you born in a barn? Fine. Be that way."  
  
Glory easily blocked Buffy's next blow and swung her around into the wall. She sent a blow for Buffy's head but the Slayer ducked at the last instant and Glory's fist punched through the concrete. Glory picked Buffy up by the throat and holds her there, gasping for air.  
  
"I just noticed something. You have super powers. That is so cool. Can you fly?" She hurled Buffy clear across the room where she lands, dazed, next to the dying monk. Buffy got to her feet and prepared to engage Glory again but realizes her priority is the monk. She helped him out of the chair.  
  
"Hey! Hands off my holy man!"  
  
Buffy picks him up and runs toward the window. Realizing what Buffy was about to do, Glory charges after them. She's too late, Buffy crashes through the window with the monk and tumbles to the ground below.  
  
Glory stumbles to a halt when the heel on her shoe breaks off. She takes off the shoe and glowers at it in frustration.  
  
Outside, Buffy helped the critically injured monk across the lot.  
  
"Stop. Please." The monk pleaded.  
  
"No. We have to keep going." They stumbled across the lot to the chain-link fence surrounding the property. The monk collapses against it, gasping.  
  
"My journey's done, I think."  
  
"Don't get metaphory on me. We're going." She tries to lift him again but he stops her.  
  
"You have to... the Key. You must protect the Key."  
  
"Fine. We can protect the Key together, okay, just far, far from here."  
  
"Many more die if you don't keep it safe."  
  
"How? What is it?" Buffy asked, knowing that Angel was looking for it, though she was thinking about having him call the whole thing off.  
  
"The Key is energy. It's a portal. It opens the door..."  
  
"The Dagon Sphere?" Buffy didn't understand.  
  
"No. For centuries it had no form at all. My brethren, its only keepers. Then the abomination found us. We had to hide the Key, gave it form, molded it flesh... made it human and sent it to you." Buffy stares at him in shock as the realization finally sinks in.  
  
"Dawn..." she shook her head, not wanting to believe, but knowing it had to be true. How else could a child be conceived on a day that had never existed?  
  
"She is the Key."  
  
"You put that in my house? I-In my body?"  
  
"We had to knew the Slayer would protect."  
  
"My memories...did you alter them?"  
  
"No...someone else did that." The monk starts coughing heavily. He's fading fast. "You cannot abandon."  
  
"I didn't ask for this! I don't even know... what is she?"  
  
"Human... now human. And helpless. Please... she's an innocent in this. She needs you."  
  
"She's not my baby, though, is she?"  
  
"Yes, she is. She's your flesh and blood. Made out of...you." The monk exhales one last time and dies. Buffy is stunned, her life turned upside down.  
  
She just sat there, stunned. After a moment, she remembered the danger still inside the old building, and ran for home.  
  
She closed the door and leaned against it, breathing hard, not so much from the excursion, but from the fear of what she had learned. "Buffy?" he melted from the shadows, their daughter in his arms.  
  
"Don't find the key, Angel. Please."  
  
"Why? What happened? Buffy, you're shaking." he touched her arm, and she instinctively flinched away from the physical contact.  
  
"T-the key was sent to me...to protect it."  
  
"You have the Key?" she bit her lip, worrying a cut that began to bleed again, and she winced at the unexpected reminder of her defeat. "You're bleeding." he gently wiped the welling blood from her lip. "Who did this to you?"  
  
"T-that bitch." she saw she needed to clarify, "The woman, Glory. Sh-she killed a man. And she wants the key."  
  
"But you have it. You have the key, right now, right?"  
  
She shook her head. "No. You do." she whispered. She dropped her gaze to the sleeping child, and his followed.  
  
"No," he whispered softly. She nodded. "We can't tell anyone. It would put them in danger, put her in danger."  
  
"So, Wes and Cordy, they're just going to keep searching? And what if they find something? What then?"  
  
"We'll make due."  
  
"I can't not tell Giles. I've...taken him for granted and...I just have to tell him."  
  
"That would be wise, he is your watcher. But no one else. Not your mom, not Willow or Xander, or Anya. No one."  
  
She nodded, "I understand." He handed her the baby and hugged the two of them.  
  
"Go on to bed, it's late."  
  
"Will you-"  
  
"I'll be right here. I promise." She nodded, and turned to go to her room, "Uh, Buffy...?"  
  
"Of course." She handed him back the child, and his eyes lit up. Dawn made him so happy. "Night, Baby. I love you." She waved one of Dawn's tiny hands, then turned to go to her room.  
  
"Goodnight, Buffy. I love you." He said softly as the door closed behind her.  
  
She stood on the other side of the almost closed door. In the silence of the house, she had heard his whispered confession. "I love you too." She murmured, before quickly changing for bed.  
  
She woke up the next morning refreshed. It had been the first night in months that she had gotten a full night's sleep. Well, what counted for a full night's sleep in her line of duty.  
  
It was early on a Saturday, so Willow was still sleeping, and the apartment was surprisingly quiet. She shuffled out into the living too. Angel sat, slouched, on the couch, fast asleep. Dawn lay on his chest, also sleeping. She smiled, and slipped past them into the kitchen  
  
At the table sat someone she hadn't thought she'd ever see again. "Good morning. You're the last person I'd thought I'd see today. Or ever."  
  
"Yes, the Powers felt you had enough help, with the watcher, vampire and witch. But she wanted to send you some final information. You've no doubt figured some of it out, but the rest will soon follow. The End of Days is near. Be ye prepared."  
  
"Ok." Buffy said wearily.  
  
"Then goodbye, Lass. You have the prayers of me, and my kin. For it is not just your world that will suffer the wrath of the consequences. All worlds will tremble. I just fear you will need so much more within the coming days." The elf bowed, then disappeared. Buffy sighed. Now she was going to have to forgo the tea, she really needed the extra caffeine of coffee this morning.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Giles, I need to talk to you." She said, walking into the shop minutes after Giles himself had arrived.  
  
"Uh, ok. Sit down, Buffy. What's wrong?"  
  
"I went patrolling last night, and I met one of Angel's clients. She wanted Angel to find the Key, but now I have information on it, and I...." She sighed. Giles got up and locked both doors into the shop.  
  
"Continue." He said, after sitting down, beside Buffy.  
  
"Dawn is.... the...she is..." she couldn't say it.  
  
"This key." Giles inferred. Buffy nodded.  
  
"They...they sent her to me. To keep her...it....her safe. I want to keep her safe. She's my child."  
  
"Do we tell the others?"  
  
"NO! No, they'd just act weird around her, and she's so little, and she wouldn't comprehend it all.... Angel says its best they don't know."  
  
"Right, I agree. For the time being, anyway. Now, we just have to find out what she needs Dawn for." He stands and starts pacing, as Buffy taps her fingers on the table, thinking. "I mean, if she comes after-"  
  
"She'll come. She'll come for us. I know it." She sighed.  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
Beacoup de reviews, s'il vous plait?  
  
Ok, so I'm no good at speaking, or writing French!  
  
I'm gonna try to shoot for another update as early as next Tuesday, but depending on how things go...I don't know. I just don't know. Lol. See ya all later!  
  
ANGELic dreams!  
  
Lol....hehehehehhehehe.....  
  
And if something doesn't make sense, tenses, or verb agreement, or sigular/plural agreement, just blame it on lack of sleep! I know I do! 


	9. Part Nine

Divine Interference  
  
Part Nine  
  
Posted: Original Post date: April 27th- Post Date: April 30th  
  
*** when I got here this morning to update stories, to my surprise! I forgot to upload this!!! No wonder I haven't gotten any reviews, cuz there's nothing to review on!!! SORRY!***  
  
***There will probably also be another chapter up here, since I was planning on updating today anyway.***  
  
Author's Notes: Ok, I'm not going to be doing EVERY single episode. We all know what happened, and ok, so it would be different because Dawn is a bit younger...but everything else is pretty much the same. And there are some things I just don't want to cover. So don't expect to read things form EVERY episode, ok?  
  
Ok! And this is a huge chapter! I really want to post it all, but it's fifteen pages, unformatted it, so I will probably save SOME for next time...sorry! Maybe if you're lucky, I'll post two chapters! I'm feeling generous!  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Malfeus: Well, I'm glad that even though you dislike the pairing, you're still waiting for the next chapter! Makes me feel all warm inside! Lol. I love it when readers review! Especially when they have nice things to say!  
  
As for my french...uh... pas si pire que ça...not if something what something? Huh...? I'm only in French two here!!!!  
  
But here's your update!!!  
  
BAShipper: thanks for reminding me of Spike! He's actually in this chapter...and well...we might end up seeing some fighting between our favorite vampires!!! Lol. Those two just crack me up...  
  
Melluvben: I think Angel's been in every chapter, lol. But I'm sorry you're going through story withdrawal. I was going through the same thing awhile ago, except it was B/A withdrawal! The show is great, but I've seen all of the Buffy reruns at least four times, I know, a bit of an underachiever, and there's no Buffy/Angel-ness on Angel, except for I Will Remember You, and I have to wait forever for that episode to come on! But I hope this gives you a bit of a high, if that's the right word...there might be more later!  
  
Bluie: lol. I might have to write a comic story like that....hmm.....I COPYWRITE THE IDEA!!! Lol. That will be my only trying-to-be-funny story! And it's more than ok, everyone makes mistakes! And if it wasn't for all the red squiggly lines under words, then I'd have tons of spelling mistakes too! But I'm glad you think I'm a good writer!  
  
And I think that's it, kiddies! That reminds me, I should add Lorne in here, somewhere....hm...that would be fun! But how..." Must think on that! But here's your regularly scheduled update!  
  
Oh, and whoever liked that Riley slowly slipped away, I'm sorry! I just don't like him and Buffy together, and the less chance they have together, whether it be in his mind or hers, the better! He's now totally gone, after this chapter!!!  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
There was a knock on the door while Willow was out with Tara, and Buffy was patrolling. Though it was a Thursday night, Angel answered the door. He had been sticking closer to Dawn the past few weeks. And that meant being closer to Buffy, which he didn't seem to mind.  
  
A blond man stood in the doorway, and Angel recognized him immediately.  
  
"Is Buffy here?"  
  
"She's patrolling."  
  
"Any idea when she'll be back?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Ok, thanks." He turned to leave, and Angel sighed. Though he didn't like the sod, Buffy would want him to be nice to him.  
  
"Riley, come on in and wait for her." He nodded, and stepped inside.  
  
"H-How is she? I haven't see- well, talked to her in awhile."  
  
"She's managing." The two men stood there awkwardly,  
  
"How's the baby?"  
  
"Dawn's good." Silence reigned for a few minutes.  
  
"Look, I don't like you, and I don't know what she sees in you, but I came here to see if we still had a shot. I really didn't expect you to be here. But you are, and I can't change that. And with you here, I'm starting to think that we don't. If you promise to make her happy, I'll leave, and we can both pretend this never happened." Riley said.  
  
"I can't."  
  
"Then I'll stay." He sat on the couch. Angel went through the usual routine, preparing a bottle for Dawn, and then walking around the apartment, trying to get her to sleep. As he was walking in the living room, Riley spoke again.  
  
"Has she figured out the father yet?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Me."  
  
"How?!"  
  
"Thanksgiving, due to a spell. I had the day redone, to save her, but this happened anyway." He went into Buffy's room and put the sleeping child down.  
  
"You lie." Riley said harshly when he returned. "It's impossible. The Initiative did extensive research. Vampires can't reproduce-"  
  
"I was human."  
  
"That's impossible! There is no spell out there, no castor capable of such high powered magick!"  
  
"Are you calling me a liar?"  
  
"Yes." Riley made the first move, throwing a punch towards Angel's face. Angel caught the move with ease, and flipped Riley over the couch. Riley was up and onto the vampire within seconds, but the vampire was always one step ahead of the man. He knew that if Buffy came and found them fighting, he would take the blame. That was how their relationship worked. He wasn't going to let this twit ruin whatever he might still have with her.  
  
Riley actually managed to throw him against the wall; he was weaker than when they had last fought, and Angel knew he could win with no problem. He could have won if he had been drunk. But Riley wasn't a pushover, and he had never been. Angel finally retaliated with a kick to Riley's mid section, slamming him against the door. Angel grabbed a hold of him, opening the door for him.  
  
"Get out of my house!" he roared. "And stay out!" he threw the boy out, who landed in a heap on the floor outside, and Angel slammed the door in his face.  
  
Dawn started screaming from the other room, while Angel looked at the mess they had made. Broken coffee table, cracked TV screen, dents in the plaster...Buffy was going to kill him.  
  
He sighed, and went to take care of his girl.  
  
~ * ~  
  
Giles, Buffy and Angel sat in the living room. The TV was out for repairs, and a new coffee table was in the middle of the room. Buffy hadn't been pissed when she found the fight scene, because she had thought it was Glory. Angel had soon set her straight, and then she had been pissed.  
  
Dawn was lying on a blanket on the floor. Buffy was so proud of her, she had just learned that she had toes, and would spend hours playing with them.  
  
"Well, they don't know it ... yet. I mean, they have no record of, of Glory or anyone like her, but, uh, based on the information that I've given them, they're gonna look into it. Um, they might have something soon." Giles said, as he stirred the tea Angel had handed him a moment earlier.  
  
"What about the key? Were they all over it?" Angel asked intently.  
  
"Yes." Giles sighed, looking down at the baby on the floor. Buffy was currently sitting beside the blanket, only half paying attention to the conversation. "They're interested, certainly, and, uh, full of theories. Most of them ... nonsensical."  
  
"They don't know that it's Dawn." Angel said, "you didn't tell them.  
  
"No." Buffy would have thought Giles would be put out by Angel's suggestion, but he knew that Angel just had a father's interest in his daughter's welfare, much like Giles had in Buffy's.  
  
"I still can't begin to grasp this. I mean, she's my little girl, I..." Buffy said from the floor. "I get why, and I get that she is, but at the same time, I don't. And I'm not making any sense, am I?"  
  
"It is disorienting." Giles offered.  
  
"Giles, what happens if they figure it out? What would they do?" Angel asked, worried.  
  
"I don't know." Giles said, looking into his tea cup.  
  
"Oh, I can't even think about this. It's too ..." Dawn started fussing. "I'll go make a bottle." She said, passing the child to Angel, leaving the room.  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Um, aren't we supposed to have a meeting?" Xander asked, after Buffy and Angel had entered the shop, Buffy carrying Dawn.  
  
"Uh, yes, yes, we, we're here for a reason." Giles said, as Buffy sits. "I've had some rather, uh ... well, I've had some news. It seems that the Council of Watchers has ... found some information that may help us out."  
  
"About Glory?" Buffy asks, pulling off Dawn's little hat.  
  
"Presumably. We'll find that out when they ... arrive. Could be very important."  
  
"Arrive? They're coming here? Now? W-why do they have to come here?" Buffy started freaking out.  
  
"Yeah, don't they have phones?" Xander asked, then started speaking in a fake British accent, "'Allo, Buffy, here's some stuff we know, pip pip.'"  
  
"Yeah! Phones. See, I'd like them on phones." Buffy said, looking up to Giles, as Angel sat beside her.  
  
"Well, what's so bad about them coming here? Aren't they good guys? I mean, Watchers, that's just like other Gileses, right?" Tara asked, not understanding.  
  
"Yeah, they're scary and horrible!" Buffy pouted. Angel took their daughter from her.  
  
"Um, they, well, they can appear a bit ... well, uh, hard-nosed, but, uh, well, essentially, their agenda is the same as ours, they want to save the world and kill demons."  
  
"Kill the current demons, right? *Current* demons." Anya said, nervous.  
  
"Giles, I don't want them to come here. I don't trust them. Make them not come here." Buffy pleaded with her watcher.  
  
"They're probably already on their way. Our old friend Quinton Travers is ... heading up the delegation."  
  
"They put me through that test, and it almost killed me. And then, when I was Faith, they almost killed me again. Honestly, I really can't handle almost being killed right now." She said, playing with Dawn's foot.  
  
"I don't like the sound of this. They don't sound very ex-demon- compatible." Anya said, always looking out for number one.  
  
"Are you sure they're English? I-I thought English people were, um, gentler, then, uh, normal..." Tara said, trailing off, feeling once again unwelcome in the group.  
  
"Maybe it won't be so bad this time. I mean, Buffy, they did think you were Faith last time. Now that they know you're just you, maybe they won't care enough to kill you." Willow looked on the bright side, taking Tara's hand comfortingly.  
  
"It's not just that. They're gonna screw everything up. I-it's a delicate time right now. I-I have to take care of Dawn, and-"  
  
"But that's not new, you've always taken care of her. Well, not always, but the last couple months." Xander corrected himself.  
  
"Right. Right, I, I know that, it's just, you know, there's, there's Glory, and...and I don't need the Council looking over my shoulder when I don't even know what we're dealing with."  
  
"Well, that's precisely why we need to talk to them." Giles said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "If the Council knows something about Glory, her agenda or her origins, then..." he sighed, "then maybe it will help us get a, a, a grip on what we're dealing with. Right now I think we're, we're a bit lost." He sighed again, and Buffy whimpered slightly, playing with her child, as if after Quentin showed up, she might not ever see her again.  
  
~ * ~  
  
That night, while Angel was home with Dawn, Buffy was out patrolling a cemetery, grousing about her classes that day, when she was knocked down. She was about to get back up and into the fight, when Spike comes flying over a headstone and grabbed the vamp from behind, knocking him to the ground. As he got up, Spike kicked him, then staked him. Spike grinned at Buffy, who stalked forward.  
  
"Spike ... why did you do that?" She asked, annoyed. She was really hoping the staking would wind her down enough so she could go home and be with her child. She was tense, and that staking just might have done it. But no luck now.  
  
"Not for money, if that's what you're thinking. Your heartfelt gratitude's plenty." He stopped grinning, "I expect I'll be getting that any moment."  
  
"Gratitude. For getting in my way?" she asked snottily, so not in the mood to listen to his twisted ideologies.  
  
"Ge-getting in your way? I saved you." Ha, the little snot didn't sound so confident now, did he? If only he knew...  
  
"I was regrouping." She defended herself.  
  
"You were about to be regrouped into separate piles. You needed help." He said, pushing this.  
  
"I didn't need you. I never need you, Spike." She turned and starts to walk off.  
  
"Oh, I get it." He started to follow. "You just don't like who did the rescuin', that's all. Wishin' I was your boyfriend what's-his-face. Oh wait, he's run off."  
  
"Wait, what? Riley didn't run off, I dumped him. And you know what? I don't need a boyfriend, to rescue me or for any other reason."  
  
"Don't need or can't keep?" He taunted, and she stopped walking to glare at him. "You keep making notches in the headboard but eventually they get up out of the bed and run off, don't they?"  
  
"You're disgusting."  
  
"Oh, rough talk." They resume walking. "Maybe that's your problem, maybe you push 'em away. Or is it the other? Maybe you cling too much. Or maybe ... your beauty's fading." They stop again. "The stress of slaying, aging you prematurely. Things not as high, not as firm." Spike grins and makes a gesture with his hand as if trying to hold up sagging breasts.  
  
"You know what, Spike? The more I get to know you, the more I wish I didn't."  
  
"Or maybe you just don't hold their interest." He put in one more jab.  
  
"Oh, then I guess you haven't heard that your grand-sire is in town again, have you? I bet he'd be real pleased if he knew how you were treating the mother of his child, wouldn't he?" She walked off towards home, leaving Spike stunned at her revelations.  
  
A/n: ok, so I can still add my own spin on an old script! lol. And I decided to switch things around, it will make much more sense, I hope...  
  
~ * ~  
  
"Well, if you're serious about these matters, all right, but ... you need to be very careful. Measure precisely, and, and, please don't step ahead." Giles told a customer while Dawn swung in her swing. Angel had to take care of some things in LA that day, but he had promised Buffy he'd be back by sunset.  
  
Giles heard the bell toll, and looked up, "I'll be with you in just a min-" He saw Quinton Travers standing there with six other Watchers standing behind him: four men, two women. Quinton took a book from Giles and looked at it.  
  
"Quite alright. You wouldn't want to do anything dangerous. Turn the wrong person into a badger." He said to the customer.  
  
"Quinton. I didn't realize you were here." He gave the book back to the customer, and she walked off.  
  
"Well, evidently." Quentin said imperiously.  
  
"Been a while. I see you've, uh, brought some of our ... colleagues with you. Would you care to introduce us?" Giles asked, wanting to know who he was dealing with.  
  
"Well, first I thought we might catch up." Quentin said, looking about the store. The other Watchers begin to spread out through the store.  
  
"Well, certainly, certainly. Uh, well, um, this is the shop, obviously." He walked towards the counter, and Quentin followed. "Uh, i-it's been a very interesting transition into the world of retail. But I think it's gone rather well. I'll give you the grand tour if you like."  
  
"No, that's all right, I think I can see what you've been up to." He says, looking around some more. They have yet to notice the cooing baby by some miracle in the swing. Anya comes up to them behind the counter.  
  
"Yes, well, I, I, uh, do limit my time here, obviously."  
  
A watcher came up behind Anya, looking at the racks of magic stuff behind the counter. Anya looks at him suspiciously.  
  
"Buffy and I have been training a great deal these days. Uh, there's a, a back room..." He didn't mention Angel.  
  
"Oh yes. I thought perhaps you were keeping that space for the really dangerous items that should be kept out of the public's hands. Or maybe you don't worry about that." He sits at the table.  
  
"I'm very careful." Giles defended himself. If the watchers had noticed Dawn yet, they weren't saying anything.  
  
"Most of this stuff couldn't harm anyone. Incense, dime store trinkets ... but there are some things." The watcher who had been near Anya came over, holding some vials.  
  
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Giles asked. A female watcher was looking at the stuff on another shelf.  
  
"There are some very potent elements here ... focusing crystals, runic artifacts, an amulet of Cauldis... Also this statue." She picks up a statue about 2 feet tall. "Its removal from Burma is a criminal offense..." Giles looks surprised. She carries the statue over to Travers, "...and when triggered, it has the power to melt human eyeballs." She gives the statue to Travers and walks off.  
  
"In that case, I severely underpriced it." Giles attempts at making a joke, that falls flat.  
  
"Uh, Giles, sorry, but this is just for the duration of our stay. I think you can see why." Travers nods to the male watcher, known as Nigel. He takes the book from Giles.  
  
"What, what, wha-what is just for the duration?" Giles stumbles, confused. Nigel stands in the middle of store and speaks loudly.  
  
"Magic Box shoppers! We're going to have to ask you to leave. The store is, uh, closing early today."  
  
Another watcher, Philip, takes an item away from a customer. "Terribly sorry for the inconvenience."  
  
Customers begin to leave. Anya looks alarmed. "Hey! Giles, what are they doing? Customers! Please bring your money back." Watchers escort customers out. Giles glares at Travers.  
  
"You knew you were gonna do this before you even saw the place." Giles accused.  
  
"I'm sorry. It's just for the duration of the Council's review."  
  
"Council? You're the Council?" Anya said nervously, then smiles. "Welcome to our store. We're closed now. I'll be in the back." She begins walking toward the back.  
  
"What review, Quinton? Let's just stop a moment and talk about this." Giles asks, in a rational manner.  
  
"Miss, excuse me, you, uh, you work here?" Quentin addressed Anya.  
  
Anya stops walking, turns back looking apprehensive. "Yes I do. Ever since I moved here from southeastern Indiana, where I was raised by both a mother and a father."  
  
"Anya, just go. You don't have to talk to him." Giles told her, hoping she'd take Dawn. Anya looked relieved, and left, walking towards the back of the store, miraculously taking the baby with her. "She works for me. Now tell me about this review. No one said anything to me about this."  
  
"Let's sit down and talk about." Quentin offered. All the Watchers move toward the round table at the far end of the store. The second female watcher pours some tea. The others stand around.  
  
"You all stand around and look somber." Giles tells them. They do. Giles rolls his eyes, "Good job."  
  
"You used to respect us, Giles. You used to be one of us." Quentin said, as if he couldn't understand where Giles's attitude was coming from.  
  
"You used to pay me. If you recall, firing me was not my idea." He said roughly.  
  
"Touche." He sits at table again. "But you were on the inside once. You know what sort of resources we command." Another Watcher puts a suitcase on the table, opens it, takes out some papers and puts them in front of Travers. The female watcher pouring tea gives Travers a cup.  
  
"We've discovered information about this creature, your Glory. Some of it is clearly vital, the rest merely extremely disturbing. And it won't be handed over until we're convinced that you and your Slayer are prepared for it. Thus the review."  
  
Giles leans over to put hands on table, speaks softly, "I'm not having you put her through another one of your insane tests."  
  
"It's not a test. It's a check of her methods. We need to know that this information is safe."  
  
"You can trust her." He straightens up. "Buffy's come very far recently. Farther that you could possibly imagine." He said, looking towards the back room, where Buffy's teacher was probably playing with her toes.  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~  
  
There, that's about it for now, I might get another chapter up later, and it is a bit longer than usual...8 pages...I'll try to get another update up soon. Tell me what you think, please! 


	10. Part Ten

Divine Interference  
  
Part Ten  
  
Posted: May 9, 2004  
  
Author's notes: OMG!! I thought I had given you some of this! I am soo sorry! I thought I had posted all I had of this, and went to work on it, only to find out I haven't updated in over a week, with 10 pages sitting idle!!! So here are those ten pages. Please review, so I know your thoughts! I try to tailor some of my writing to my readers...but not all! Lol.  
  
And once again, since we're working from scripts, I have tense problems. Sorry!  
  
Later well...that makes more sense now...  
  
See, I had started to edit the chapter, so I could post it, and stopped. But I put it in my READY TO POST folder anyway, the only folder I NEVER look in, unless I've saved something there to upload. So that's why I had thought I had already posted this, because I have a duplicate chapter right in there!  
  
Sigh  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Melluvben: Yeah, I liked that part too. I seem to be having a VERY hard time writing anything really great about Dawn, like her actions and stuff. The last time I was around a baby for more than a few hours was when my brother was a baby...fourteen years ago! I've never had the chance to baby- sit a baby, so I have no clue how they amuse themselves! But toes seemed to be a good bet. Thanks for your review!  
  
BAshipper: lol. I'm glad. He might or might not be in more of it...I might end up keeping his part in the fleeing, but I have to make room for Angel somewhere...he's already stolen some of other people's lines...oh well. I'll figure something out! I always do! Thanks for the review!  
  
Malfeus: There will probably be more Spike in here, just because I have found I love writing Angel/Spike banter. Oh! AND THAT WAS so NOT A PAIRING BAR...THING! No, no no! icky!  
  
But anyway.... we may see some talking about Riley behind his back, but he's gone now. Way gone. Go you're his stupid South America, and go find Sam, and get married to her, AND NEVER COME BACK!!!  
  
That's what that mean, huh? Cool! Um...merci beacoup pour le...lire?  
  
Whatever!  
  
Thanks for the review!  
  
Giles showed the watchers the training room, at their request. Anya saw them, and made a muffled sound that sounded like a squeak. She took the baby and left the back room.  
  
"We've been developing sort of a, a hybrid fighting style ... let me outline her progress for you and I-I think you'll see that your review isn't strictly needed."  
  
Buffy entered the shop, and saw Anya with her child, but didn't say anything. It was a pretty common sight these days. She set her school bag on the table, and walked into the back room.  
  
"Hey, Giles. I'm here to get-"she saw the watchers, and tried to back out of the room, hoping they hadn't noticed her yet, "Bad day. Bad, baaad...." she muttered, turning to flee.  
  
"Miss Summers..." Quentin Travers said, and Buffy stopped backing away, "good to see you again." Buffy entered reluctantly, closing the door behind her.  
  
"Mr. Travers." Buffy said briskly.  
  
"Giles has just been telling us of your training regimen. Perhaps you'll favor us with a demonstration while we're here."  
  
"Right now? I have lots of homework to do and..." she wasn't sure what she should say about Dawn. She didn't know if they knew yet.  
  
"No need to rush you," Quentin assured her.  
  
"They're ... staying a little longer than I'd anticipated." Giles told her, taking off his glasses. Oh God, she thought, if Giles was already stripping the glasses, it had to be bad. Oh! Icky thought! Giles and stripping! Bad thought!  
  
"We've already laid out our project for Mr. Giles. Nigel?" The Watchers and Buffy move toward one side of the room while Giles leaned against the counter.  
  
"It's an exhaustive examination of your procedures and abilities. We'll observe your training, talk to your friends..." he started.  
  
"Whoa, talk to my friends?" she interrupted.  
  
"Yes, we understand you're still taking civilians out on patrols," Quentin said.  
  
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Buffy muttered, rolling her eyes heavenward, as if there was anything up there that could have prevented this screw up in her life. They were probably watching and laughing.  
  
"Buffy ... I can sense your resistance, and I don't blame you. But I think your Watcher hasn't reminded you lately of the resolute status of the players in our little game. The Council fights evil. The Slayer is the instrument by which we fight. The Council remains, the Slayers change. It's been that way from the beginning..." Quentin started.  
  
"Well, that's a very comforting, bloodless way of looking at it, isn't it?" Giles stopped him before he got anywhere.  
  
"Giles, let me talk to Buffy, because I think she's understanding me." Quentin pretty much told him to butt out, but in the nice way British people held. Buffy was overjoyed in a sarcastic way. He turned to her, "Glory is stronger than you. She's a more powerful instrument, if you will. We can help you. We have information that will help. Pass the review and we give it to you without reservation. Fail the review, either through incompetence, or by resisting our recommendations..."  
  
"Resisting your recommendations? She fails if we don't do whatever you say! How much under your thumb do you think we are?" Giles said in outrage.  
  
"How much do you want our help?" Quentin threw back at him, in his proper English accent. Buffy really wanted to choke him, or maybe all of them. And then she could go home and snuggle with Dawn.  
  
Giles poked his finger angrily at Travers, and the other Watchers restrain him, "She's not your bloody instrument and you have no right to do any of this!"  
  
"Giles!" Buffy cried. If anyone was going to piss them off, it would be her. She was far stronger than any of them. Giles shook off the other Watchers and moved away, frustrated.  
  
"I understand you think this is unfair. But there are factors, which should motivate you to go along with the review. Now, I don't want to do this, but obviously we could shut this place down permanently." Quentin threatened.  
  
"You can't do that. You don't have that kind of power." Buffy scoffed.  
  
"Of course we do, and a great deal more. In fact, if you insist on fighting us, we'll arrange to have Mr. Giles deported within the day. Never set foot in this country again. Now perhaps you're used to idle threats and sloppy discipline, Miss Summers, but you're dealing with grownups now. Am I making myself clear?" Buffy looked angrily from Travers to Giles, who wouldn't look at her, and then back. She glared at Travers for a few minutes, before sighing.  
  
"Fine. Go ahead and do whatever you have to, to make yourselves feel important," She scoffed. "Giles, I'm gonna go home. Will's gonna be there in a bit, or him, and I'll go patrolling"  
  
"Yes, good plan. And I'll, ah, stay here, and deal with our...guests."  
  
"I'll see you tomorrow, Rupert." Quentin said unexpectedly, and nodding to his watcher cronies, he left. Anya came in after they left the room, muttering to herself.  
  
"Take your child, I can't work like this. No customers, and no money. I'm going home." She said, and Giles just nodded, rubbing his forehead.  
  
Buffy walked out of the room, to get Dawn's stuff. Giles followed her, sitting at the table.  
  
"It's a power play, that's what it is. It's about who has the power." He told her.  
  
"I'm guessing they do? Big power outage in Buffy county?" she asked, placing her hands in her lap. Dawn was in her carrier already.  
  
"I should have set you loose on them, that's what I should have done."  
  
"Giles, that Travers guy is like sixty. I can't hit him," But then she looked up, a glint in her eye, "Can I?"  
  
"I suppose not. Well, I could. I think I will."  
  
"Can they really do the stuff they threatened? Kick you out the country?" She picked up one of Dawn's feet and wiggled it.  
  
"In a heartbeat." He took off his glasses, taking out a handkerchief and began to clean them, "See, the rough stuff, they're all right out there, a bit ham-handed, but they get it done, but, uh ... this stuff, the, uh, bureaucracy, the pulling of political strings, they're the best in the world. They can kill you with the stroke of a pen. Poncy sods." There's a crunching noise as Giles's glasses break in his hands from too vigorous a cleaning. One of the lenses has popped out of the frame. Giles looks down at them.  
  
"Am I gonna be able to get through this review?" she asked quietly, not looking at anything but her lap. Dawn made a cooing noise.  
  
"Well, I... I suppose they'll make it as difficult as they want to. The physical stuff could be a bit of a challenge," He put on his glasses, remembers that they're broken, and immediately takes them off again.  
  
"That's not what I'm worried about. It's the other stuff. Examining decisions I've made. I mean, twice now I've been within slaying distance of Glory, and twice she's kicked my ass without even tensing a muscle. And I haven't been able to figure out ... what she is, or anything about her except that she wants the key, which I have, and I can't even figure out if it's okay for me to tell anyone that. Top it all off with me giving birth to a child that I didn't even know I was going to have...with a vampire father..."  
  
"Buffy, no one could have done any better than you." He reassures her, placing a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"But no one else is gonna be asked the questions that I can't answer." She starts getting agitated. "They're gonna expect me to ... to be like a Slayer and, and know stuff, but I'm just me and I don't know anything, and they're gonna go away, and they're not gonna tell me how to fight Glory, and I'm not gonna be able to protect Dawn." He could see tears welling up in her eyes. But she blinked, and they disappeared.  
  
"Buffy, calm down. The scandal here is not anything you've done wrong, it's the way they're behaving. Holding what they know hostage with a gun pointed at my bleeding green card, no less." He sighed, "It's humiliating."  
  
"Also smart. They picked the perfect thing. I can't lose you. Will, Xand, mom, they've always been there for me, but you...I just can't do this without you."  
  
"Thank you." He whispered.  
  
She sighed, "I guess I should be getting ready. What do you think it'll be like, I mean, how do you think they'll start?"  
  
"I-I have no idea, Buffy. I'm sorry." She nodded.  
  
A/N: hmm...should I have the interrogation? There's really no info we need.... just pretend they've all happened. Oh! Except one! That one will be fun! Hehehe.  
  
"Sir, may we speak to you a moment?" two men stood at the door. He nodded, letting them in.  
  
"You're from the Council, correct?" It was their turn to nod. "Please, sit down." They did, but he stayed standing.  
  
"For the record, your name, sir?"  
  
"Liam. But I go by Angel."  
  
"Uh, yes." The second man, the one not answering questions, pulled a stake and cross from his pocket. "And you are a vampire, correct?"  
  
"That's right."  
  
"But you help the slayer?" He asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And why would you be so inclined?"  
  
"Look, I know you know this stuff already, so let's just cut to the chase. What do you really want to know?"  
  
"What is your current relationship with the slayer?" he said after a second.  
  
"Her name's Buffy. And we're...friends," He hesitated ever so slightly.  
  
"Friends?" he raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Yes," Angel crossed his arms over his chest. A wail came from somewhere in the back of the apartment. The watchers both jumped, while Angel sighed. "Uh, if you'll excuse me a minute," He disappeared down the dark hallway. The two watchers sat in apprehension a moment, before the vampire came out, bypassed them, and headed towards the kitchen. They heard noises, and another pitiful cry, before the vampire came back, five minutes later. "Sorry about that," He settled down in the armchair beside the couch, holding Dawn's bottle.  
  
"Whose child?" The watcher asked.  
  
"Mine." Was the curt reply.  
  
"That's impossible!" the other watcher blurted out, receiving a reproving glare from the fist watcher.  
  
"You've heard of Mohra blood, right?"  
  
The watchers nodded, "It has regenerative properties, does it not?"  
  
"Got it in one, watcher man. Oh, God, I've been hanging with Harris too much." He sighed, shaking his head.  
  
"But that does not relieve the question..."  
  
"I was human, and I went a bit...wild. You know the feeling, right? Anyway, nine months later...even after I had it reversed, so I could still fight and help Buffy, there's her," He nodded towards the baby in his arms.  
  
"Uh...I believe that those are the only questions we have for you at this time. If we have further questions, we shall get in touch with you."  
  
"H-How is she doing? Her tests, and things?"  
  
"We are not at liberty to say." Angel nodded, and showed them out.  
  
A/N; hmm...there seem to be a lot of these in here. I'm just pouting that the script doesn't have the Japanese! I actually might know some of it, but I'd have to go look it up, and that would be evil-y boring!  
  
Of course, if it was the Japanese for the Shotokan moves, then I could probably pick those out of my brain! Let's see....kiba dachi...that's a stance..sekin zuki...that would be a punch...this is really hard!  
  
"Agility, clarity, stamina and strength...these are the qualities that the Slayer must possess to do her job," Travers, along with the watchers, Giles, and Buffy all were in the workroom. Dawn sat in a bouncy seat by Giles. Nigel was typing a blindfold around Buffy's eyes,  
  
"What came after agility?" Buffy asked.  
  
"If you want her to attack the dummy-"Giles started.  
  
"No, no. Philip will attack the dummy." Philip stood next to the dummy, wearing a gi, otherwise known as a karate robe, "The Slayer's job is to protect it. Do you understand?"  
  
"Protect the dummy. Got it." She nodded.  
  
"As if it were precious. Now, getting the best of Philip will require agility. Listening to my instructions at the same time that will demonstrate clarity. And stamina and strength will win the long fight. Good luck." Travers said.  
  
"Instructions?" Buffy whined.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be telling you what to do, how to counter Philip's attack. We assume you're familiar with the Japanese names for aikido and jiu-jitsu moves." Travers said in an offhand manner.  
  
"Japanese?" Buffy's voice was just a wee bit shrill.  
  
"And, go!" one watcher called, clicking a stop watch.  
  
"Whoa, hold on a second. We uh, you know in America, we usually just work our way up to 'go.'" Philip bows toward Buffy. He's holding a short axe.  
  
Travers said something in what Buffy had to assume was Japanese.  
  
"Huh?" she asked, turning her head this way and that, trying to figure out what was going on.  
  
"He wants you to bow. Take a bow." Giles translated.  
  
"Oh." She bowed. Dawn gurgled. Philip began circling around her. Buffy followed his movements. He thrusts at the dummy and Buffy blocks. Then she kicks at him and misses. She spins around and blocks his overhead punch.  
  
Travers speaks even more Japanese, which Buffy couldn't understand. Philip punched Buffy in the face.  
  
"Punch him." Giles translates. A/N; something-zuki  
  
"Thanks, Giles." Buffy calls.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
Travers starts speaking Japanese again.  
  
"Uh...back kick, elbow-"Giles translates. Buffy back-kicks and Philip moves out of the way. She thrusts with her elbow and he avoids it. "...elbow...strike."  
  
"How have you been training her?" Travers asks with disdain.  
  
"I've trained her to win." Giles defends himself. Buffy just looks annoyed.  
  
"You know what? I'm gonna have to do it my way, guys." Buffy notified them, stepping into a stance. Philip swung the weapon and she ducked. He lifted it for an overhead blow and Buffy grabbed the handle, kicked him in the stomach, forced him back against the training horse and elbowed him in the face. He tumbled backward over the horse, losing his grip on the weapon. The momentum pulls it out of Buffy's hands and it flies backward to land in the dummy's chest, knocking the dummy backward into Nigel. He falls to the floor with the dummy on top of him.  
  
Buffy turns around, pulling the blindfold off. A watcher kneels by Nigel and clicks the stopwatch.  
  
"Uh-oh," she said, seeing the dummy. The others help Philip up.  
  
"I think she just broke my rib." Philip complained.  
  
"Yes, well." Travers said, a condescending tone in his voice.  
  
"I didn't mean to. Um, you know, I, I can do better. I think I might be getting this, like, inner ear thing, and so maybe, maybe if I got a note, I, I could try again."  
  
"No, that's all right, I don't think we need to see any more physical tests for a while. We can move on to the real review. Look into your strategies, plans ... figure out what's going on in that head."  
  
"Good. Head stuff." Buffy pouted. Dawn started crying. She went over and lifted the child out of the seat.  
  
"We start at seven tonight. Give you time to, uh ..." he looks from Buffy to Giles, "well, however you prepare." The Watchers leave. Buffy and Giles look glum.  
  
The Watchers are walking around the Magic Box, looking at books, moving stuff around. Giles sits in a chair by the table. Anya, Xander, Willow, and Tara sit on the balcony above, looking down. Their feet dangle in the air and they lean against the railing watching the Watchers.  
  
"Look at them. Big tough Council members pickin' on the books." Xander says.  
  
"Fascists." Willow interjects.  
  
"Why doesn't Mr. Giles put them all out of here?" Tara asks out loud.  
  
"Because if they deport him, they're not just destroying his career, they're ... condemning the man to a lifetime diet of blood sausage, bangers, and mash." Xander comes up with an answer.  
  
Travers walks over to where Giles is sitting. "Well, your Slayer's twenty minutes late and counting, Rupert."  
  
"Buffy will be here, I assure you."  
  
"Yes, but when?" he chuckled  
  
Buffy walked through a dark alley, with Dawn in tow, in a nifty little back pouch. She looked at her watch.  
  
"Crap." She muttered. She walked faster. Suddenly someone appears from behind a trashcan and grabs her around the waist, pulling her down to the ground. They both get up. It's a person in medieval armor with chain mail covering his face. He backhands Buffy; she spins around and flies into a pile of garbage, twisting in midair, to land on her front. Dawn starts to scream. As she straightens up, two more knights appear. The first one has a sword, the other two have metal staves. They circle around Buffy, twirling their weapons.  
  
"Uh ... guys? A-any way we could ... not do this?" She asked.  
  
The knight with the sword swings. Buffy ducks. She spins and punches him, ducks a staff thrust, kicks the other staff, ducks again, kicks the first staff-holder in the stomach. Ducks another swing, kicks the second staff guy twice. Ducks a swing from sword guy, blocks a punch, punches him in the face while holding his sword arm. Kicks him back, grabs the staff of another and pushes him away. Dawn is screaming the whole time.  
  
She deflects the other staff holder. Then she does two back-flips that carry her over the two staves, grabs one staff and thrusts it into that knight's stomach, deflects a sword thrust with it, kicks the sword guy in the stomach. Jabs the staff into disarmed knight's stomach again, ducks a thrust from the other staff, kicks that knight so he goes spinning away. Buffy and the disarmed knight grapple for his staff, finally she hits him in the face with it. He goes down. She drops her staff and blocks an overhand sword thrust, punches the sword holder and he goes down. Buffy kicks the other staff holder away, picks up the staff again and faces off with the sword holder.  
  
Buffy knocks the sword out of the knight's hand and pushes him to the ground, jumping on top of him and holding the staff to his throat.  
  
"Okay. Let's see what you are." She said, while Dawn was screaming in her ear. Why had Angel had to pick this night, of all nights, to go back to LA for some emergency business?  
  
She removed the chain-mail mask to reveal an ordinary-looking human man with a symbol on his forehead. "Or who you are."  
  
"One soldier in a vast army." The soldier answers.  
  
"What army?" she asked.  
  
"The Knights of Byzantium, an ancient order. And now your enemy."  
  
"You work for Glory?" she asked, pushing the staff deeper into his throat. Dawn didn't seem to be calming down anytime fast.  
  
"You think we align ourselves with the beast? You must be mad."  
  
"You're the ones tried killing me."  
  
"No, we were fools, three alone. But if it takes a hundred men, we send a hundred men, and if it takes a thousand, we send a thousand."  
  
"A thousand?" Just a touch of worry enters her voice.  
  
"So long as you protect the key, the brotherhood will never stop until we destroy it and you. You are the Slayer, and we know what we must do. Now, be done with it. Kill us, and let legions follow." Buffy shoves the staff into his throat again, then tosses it aside, gets up and picks up the sword. The knight gets to his feet, and she puts the sword to his throat. He turns his head away waiting for the kill stroke.  
  
"Go." She ordered him. The knight looks surprised, edges around her and leaves. Buffy stares at the sword.  
  
Buffy entered the magic shop, holding the sword in the back pack, and jiggling Dawn, trying to get her to quiet. She wasn't screaming so loud now. All the Watchers were standing there, the four Slayerettes were still sitting on the upper level, and Travers was sitting at the table with a pile of papers spread out in front of him. Giles sits on the stairs leading up to the balcony.  
  
"You're late." Travers said.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Was, was there an attack?" Giles asked, seeing the sword sticking out of the backpack, and Dawn's red face.  
  
"You could say that."  
  
"We can begin the review at last. We'll, uh, skip the more obvious questions..." Buffy takes the sword out, balancing Dawn, and puts it down on his papers.  
  
"There isn't gonna be a review." She told him.  
  
"Sorry?" Travers asked in disbelief.  
  
"No review. No interrogation. No questions you know I can't answer. No hoops, no jumps-"one of the watchers made to interrupt, "and no interruptions." Nigel shuts up. Buffy looks around, gives Dawn to Giles, and begins to pace.  
  
"See ... I've had a lot of people talking at me the last few days. Everyone just lining up to tell me how unimportant I am. And I've finally figured out why." She looks Travers in the eye, "Power. I have it. They don't. This bothers them." Buffy moved back to the table, removing her coat.  
  
"Glory ... was at my mom's today."  
  
"Buffy, are you-"Giles said, alarmed.  
  
"Just to talk. She told me I'm a bug, I'm a flea, she could squash me in a second. Only she didn't. She came into my home, and we talked. We had what in her warped brain probably passes for a civilized conversation. Why? Because she needs something from me. Because I have power over her." Buffy looked around hands on her hips. She walked the floor, looking from one Watcher to the next as she talks. "You guys didn't come all the way from England to determine whether or not I was good enough to be let back in. You came to beg me to let you back in. To give your jobs, your lives, some semblance of meaning."  
  
"This is beyond insolence-"One of the watchers started.  
  
Buffy grabs the sword from the table and throws it across the room in a single movement. It flies point-first into the wall directly in front of Nigel's nose. He jumps back looking shocked.  
  
"I'm fairly certain I said no interruptions." She cleared her throat.  
  
"That was excellent!" Xander whispered. Many of them had wanted to do something similar. Willow and Tara just grin.  
  
"You're Watchers. Without a Slayer, you're pretty much just watchin' Masterpiece Theater. You can't stop Glory. You can't do anything with the information you have except maybe publish it in the "Everyone Thinks We're Insane-O's Home Journal." So here's how it's gonna work. You're gonna tell me everything you know. Then you're gonna go away." She took Dawn back from Giles, and continued pacing, bouncing her daughter as she went. "You'll contact me if and when you have any further information about Glory. The magic shop will remain open. Mr. Giles will stay here as my official Watcher, reinstated at full salary..."  
  
"Retroactive." Giles coughed.  
  
"...to be paid retroactively from the month he was fired. I will continue my work with the help of my friends..."  
  
"I, uh, I ... don't want a sword thrown at me, but, but, civilians, I - we're talking about children." Another watcher spoke up.  
  
Buffy looked up at her friends in the balcony, "We're talking about two very powerful witches and a thousand-year-old ex-demon."  
  
"Willow's a demon?!" Anya's still trying to cover it all up.  
  
"The boy? No power there." Nigel noted.  
  
"The boy has clocked more field time than all of you combined. He's part of the unit."  
  
"That's Riley-speak." Willow whispered to Xander.  
  
"I've clocked field time." Xander whispered back, smiling.  
  
"Now." She addressed the Watchers, "You all may be very good at your jobs. The only way we're gonna find out is if you work with me. You can all take your time thinking about that." She turned back to Travers, "But I want an answer right now from Quinton, 'cause I think he's understanding me."  
  
"Uh, your terms are acceptable." He cleared his throat. Giles smiles hugely. The Slayerettes burst into cheers and applause, but quickly stop, looking embarrassed. Buffy looks up at them, looks at Giles. She doesn't smile, but looks satisfied. She sits across from Travers.  
  
"See? No biggie." Buffy shrugged. She sat Dawn up in her arms.  
  
"Uh, Rupert." Travers nodded.  
  
"Quinton?"  
  
"When we inventoried your shop, we found a bottle of single malt scotch behind the, uh, incense holders."  
  
"Well, it's, it's not, you know, during working hours." Giles blustered.  
  
"I think I could use a glass." Travers said, clearing his throat again. "I just want to ask one question, though, Miss Summers."  
  
"Fire away."  
  
"Whose child is that?"  
  
"She's mine." He stared at her, perplexed.  
  
"Well, I suppose we could-" Giles said, covering up the awkward silence, getting up.  
  
"Just a minute." Buffy said, and Giles stopped. "Glory. I wanna know."  
  
"Well, there's a lot to go through." Travers shuffled through his papers.  
  
"Just tell me what kind of demon I'm fighting." Buffy said, giggling Dawn.  
  
"Well, that's the thing, you see. Glory isn't a demon."  
  
"What is she?"  
  
"She's a god."  
  
The only sound in the shop was Dawn gurgling. "Oh." Buffy said, shocked, after a moment.  
  
"Ok, I know you said it was really important, and you couldn't cover it on the phone, but could we hurry? The Council's in town, and I really need to make sure there's little blood shed." Angel said, walking over and standing next to Wesley, who currently sat at the desk.  
  
"Oh, dear lord! Quentin Travers is in Sunnydale?"  
  
"Yeah, and he's getting on everyone's nerves. What have you got for me?"  
  
"Well, I went through most of our resources-"  
  
"Excuse me, who went through the musty books?" Cordelia interrupted.  
  
"We researched the information you gave us, and found something interesting."  
  
"Terrifying is more like it. Why do we always have to deal with these things?" Cordelia interjected once more.  
  
"In one of the 'musty books,' there was a translation of a story that was passed down by the Africans. Not sure which tribe."  
  
"Of course the book was in Latin, so once again, Mr. Watcher gets to take all the credit." Cordy groused.  
  
"Cordelia, please!" Angel turned to her.  
  
"The story was about Glorificus, and also That-Which-Cannot-Be-Named, telling how a Hell God was thrown out of her dimension, by her brethren."  
  
"So we did some more research..." Cordelia started.  
  
"And let me guess, Glorificus is Glory." They nodded. He sighed, frustrated.  
  
"Which makes looking for this key thing, a bad thing." Cordelia set a book aside.  
  
"Just keep searching for any information on this Key. The more we know, maybe we can stop her from getting her hands on it." He turned to leave.  
  
"W-Where are you going?" Cordelia asked, shocked.  
  
"Glory's in Sunnydale. Along with a gaggle of watchers. I can't leave Buffy there alone, with Dawn."  
  
"She's a GOD! You get that right, Impervious to getting hurt, it seems." Wesley said.  
  
"I can't just sit here, and watch Buffy get hurt." He left.  
  
Cordelia sighed. "Why do I feel like we just got sidelined?"  
  
Angel slipped into the apartment.  
  
"Angel!" she cried in a whisper, rushing out of her chair. She scared him, sitting all alone in the dark. She wrapped her arms around his chest, burying her nose in his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her, and that's when he noticed she was shaking.  
  
He forcefully pulled her far enough away so that he could see her face. "What's wrong? What happened?" he ran his fingers down her cheek, running into a wet stream. "IS it Dawn? Is she ok?" something squeezed at his dead heart. She nodded. "Then what is it?"  
  
She led him over to the couch, "I found out some information on Glory."  
  
"Me too. You go first." he squeezed her hand.  
  
She sighed, "Glory's a god."  
  
He nodded, "Kicked out of her own dimension."  
  
"And she's after Dawn. What are we going to do?" she practically crawled into his lap, resting her head on his chest. He stroked her soft hair soothingly.  
  
"We'll do what we must." he promised her.  
  
"But will it be enough?" she murmured.  
  
"It has to."  
  
Please review!!! 


	11. Part Eleven

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ok, I don't know what the hell is going on, but I swore I had posted this chapter! No wonder I have no reviews for this story!  
  
I am so sorry guys, and I guess it's your lucky day, because I have part 12 done as well, and ready to post! Two chapters for the wait of one!  
  
FINAL POST DATE: June 10, 2004  
  
Divine Interference  
  
Part Eleven  
  
Author's notes: Sorry it's taken so long guys. I really didn't mean for it to take this long to get another chapter up! I've been really busy, with homework, and schoolwork, and all that. We have like...I think it's 17 days left of school. Our Dress Rehearsal is tonight, and then we have our Spring Concert tomorrow. Then I have a huge research paper due Weds, and I'm just counting down until the school year ends! But that also means that the sooner school ends, the sooner there are finals....EEKKK!!!!  
  
But the good news is that I've finished Stolen Innocence, and I'll be posting the end within the next few weeks, if any of you are reading that. Is Daddy an Angel was nominated for an award awhile back, but it doesn't seem like we've won anything pout Better luck next time. Because there will be a next time, lol.  
  
And I'd just like to take this time to ask for a moment of silence for our dearly departed favorite show...Angel, we are seriously going to miss you! Those of you that still have like three weeks or something, because you're not in the US, savor those moments!  
  
But here is your long awaited update! I hope you enjoy!!!  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Malfeus: I so agree. I wonder if they make like...bullet proof baby back packs, and shock absorbing ones too? And yeah, I agree, that chapter was a pain in the butt to do, mostly because of the entire changing tenses thing. I'm no good at that what so ever. But here's a long awaited update, and I think it's not so muc script stuff....I hope not, anyway!  
  
Thanks for the review!!  
  
Melluvben: well, I hope to achieve that. That is my goal with almost every story I start writing, to get those two back together!!!  
  
And that seems to be it!  
  
I should really get offline, to see if I have a ride to my Rehearsal....oh well!  
  
START OF STORY HERE  
  
"Look, I know Mom wants to gather and make with the merry tomorrow night, but with everything that's going on..." Buffy sat at the table in the Magic Box, while the others researched around her.  
  
Willow walked up behind her. "This is exactly what you need." She sits next to Buffy. Tara is sitting on Willow's other side, "A 20th birthday party with, with, with presents, and funny hats, and, and those candles that don't blow out..." she then leaned over to Tara and whispered, "Those used to scare me."  
  
"Me too." Tara is quick to agree.  
  
"I just don't think this is the best time to break out the party piñata. We need to stay focused if we're gonna find a way to stop Glory." She insisted. Xander and Anya are sitting on Buffy's other side.  
  
"We're going up against a god. An actual mightier-than-thou god." Xander said, still seeming to not being able to grasp the concept.  
  
"Well, you know what they say, the bigger they are-"Willow tried to help Buffy.  
  
"The faster they stomp you into nothing." Anya said, crushing Willow's attempt to make Buffy feel better.  
  
"She's right. I've thrown everything I've got at her and she just shrugs it off."  
  
"Then we have to find something heavier to throw." Willow insisted.  
  
"That might pose some difficulty. From what the Council's been able to discover from the book of Tarnis and, and, and other sources, Glory and two of her fellow hell gods ruled over ... one of the more seriously unpleasant demon dimensions."  
  
"There's more than one?" Tara asked, nervous.  
  
"Oh, there are thousands of demon dimensions. All different." Anya said.  
  
"Yeah, we really can't know for sure which one we're dealing with." Angel put in, from his place on the floor, holding Dawn. She was now six months old, and she tried to crawl around, as he played with her.  
  
"All pushing on the edges of our reality, trying to find a way in." Giles informed them.  
  
"I guess Glory found one. The question is, why?"  
  
"There's nothing to indicate that here. Just ... vague references to ... chaos and destruction." The teakettle whistled, and Giles left his papers to make the tea.  
  
"Okay, so, we know where Glory's from. What do we know about her? You know, she's tough, yeah, but, but no bolts of lightning, no blasts of fire, shouldn't a god be able to do that kind of stuff?"  
  
"Being in human form is probably severely limiting her powers. All we have to worry about right now is she's immortal, and invulnerable." Angel said.  
  
"And insane." Giles added.  
  
"A crazy hell god? And the fun just keeps on leaving." Xander complained.  
  
"From what I've been able to gather, her living in this world is ... seriously affecting her mental state as well. She's only being able to keep her mind intact by, uh, extracting energy from us. Well, from, from the human brain."  
  
"She, she, she's a brain-sucker?" Willow and Tara exchange a look.  
  
"She, um ..." he leaned over the table, to read from the book, "'absorbs the energies that bind the human mind into a cohesive whole." Once drained, all that's left behind is, uh-"  
  
"Crazy people." Buffy stated sadly.  
  
"Which is, I'm afraid, why there's been a marked increase in the ranks of the mentally unstable here in Sunnydale." Giles agreed.  
  
"At least vampires just kill you." Tara said, "Oh, uh, no offense, Mr. Angel."  
  
"None taken." He said, looking at the pretty girl that was sitting so close to Willow.  
  
"We have to find a way to stop her." Buffy stood up.  
  
"Oh, well, Tara and I can work on some tactical spells." Willow said hurridly, smiling at her girlfriend.  
  
Giles handed Buffy a cup of tea. "ug." She looked at the cup, and Angel gave her a pointed stare. She sighed, and added lots of sugar to the British drink.  
  
"I can do some research. I know way more about demon dimensions than Giles does," Anya said in her usual way. Giles frowned at her. "Well, I do."  
  
"This is great long-term plan-y stuff, but what about this ... key thingy Glory's looking for?" Xander asked. Buffy, Angel and Giles all sipping tea, exchange a look.  
  
"Yeah, I mean, shouldn't we be trying to find it before she does?" Tara asked.  
  
"I don't think that's what we should be worrying about right now," Buffy said, as Giles sat.  
  
"They've got a point. Whatever Glory's planning on opening with the key, I'm guessing it won't be filled with candy and flowers," Willow said.  
  
"So where should we start looking? Do we know where it used to be kept? Who saw it last?" Xander asked.  
  
"We did. Angel, Giles and I. We, we know where it is," Buffy said, looking down at her hands. Angel got up silently, and placed a reassuring hand on her back.  
  
"You what?" Xander sputtered.  
  
"You know, and you didn't tell us?" Willow asked, wounded.  
  
"There were ... reasons," Giles tried to reassure them all.  
  
"But Dead Boy knows, and we don't? He's been out of the loop way longer than any of us others have. And suddenly he holds a clue?"  
  
"Look, i-if Glory knew that you guys knew where it was, I ... I-I just didn't wanna put you in that kind of danger."  
  
"As opposed to the other kind we're always in?" Xander asked, annoyed.  
  
"You should have said something." Willow said quietly.  
  
"Will, there-"she paused, trying to think it all through. "You're right." She looked up at Angel, "It's time."  
  
"Are you sure?" he asked quietly, as if the conversation wasn't for the others to hear.  
  
"If they're gonna be risking their lives, they deserve to know." She said, matching his tone.  
  
"Know what?" Xander asked, annoyed. Buffy looked at her friends. They looked at her.  
  
She sighed, "There's something that you need to know ... about Dawn."  
  
PAGE BREAK  
  
"Buffy!" Willow cried later that night, "you could have told us!"  
  
"And put all of you in more danger? This God or whatever, she's crazy, Wills. And she sucks brains. I just didn't want you guys getting hurt."  
  
"Do you really think that she'd stop, just because we didn't know anything?"  
  
"I think she didn't tell us because she doesn't trust us," Xander said, from his place on the couch. He and Willow had come home with her, pretty much to bitch at her.  
  
"That's not it at all! Guys, I trust you better than I trust myself! It's just..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"This is my problem to deal with-"  
  
"That's shit, Buffy, and you know that as much as we do."  
  
"He's right. We love you, Buffy, and we love Dawn."  
  
"I know." She sighed. "What do we do now?"  
  
"Tara and I are gonna do an early warning spell, both here, your mom's house, and the shop, so if Glory comes, then we'll know before she shows up."  
  
"Good. And where are we on research? Do we have any idea how to kill her yet?"  
  
"She's a hell god. She's immortal, and impermeable."  
  
"Still with the un-killable thing. What else?"  
  
"Your birthday." Buffy groaned. "We're going to meet at your mom's house, and Angel agreed to literally drag you over there, if he has to," Xander said.  
  
"Fine, I'll go." She sighed, "But I really think that it's a waste of time. We have other things we have to worry about!"  
  
PAGE BREAK  
  
"Prezzies!" Buffy cried, looking at all the gifts her friends had gotten her. She was sitting on the couch, squished between her mom and Angel, her mom held Dawn. Xander, Giles, Tara, Anya, and Willow stood around. Tara and Xander hold gifts, while Willow wears a party hat and holds a bottle of bubble-blowing liquid.  
  
"See, just what you needed," Willow smiled, blowing bubbles towards Dawn. She giggled her baby laugh and swatted at the bubbles.  
  
"You are very, very wise. Now gimme, gimme, gimme!" Buffy cries, excited at the prospect of getting gifts. Tara hands her a gift, and Buffy begins ripping off the paper. Joyce saved the bow, and stuck it in Dawn's hair.  
  
"This is extremely suspenseful! I want the presents." Anya said, just a bit too loudly, to Xander.  
  
Buffy quickly finished demolishing the wrapping paper, and pulled out a dress from the box. "Ohh ... it's beautiful. Thank you, guys!"  
  
"Well, we thought you'd get lots of crossbows, other killy stuff." Tara said, smiling.  
  
"Yeah, so we figured, less killy, more frilly." Willow said, blowing more bubbles, this time in Angel's face. He was debating about taking them away from her.  
  
"And we also figured you'd get lots of stuff for Dawn already, and this was your birthday." Tara explained some more.  
  
"I love it, guys! And now I don't want to sound under appreciative, or anything, but next!" everyone laughed.  
  
"Uh, open this one." Angel took a small gift from his jacket pocket.  
  
"You didn't have to get me anything, Angel. You've given me enough." She didn't know if it was to be malicious or not.  
  
"Just open it." Willow blew more bubbles. Buffy slowly unwrapped the paper for a minute, then she shrugged her shoulders, and ripped into the paper. What she saw, once the paper was gone, was a hinged picture frame. The first picture was a picture of her, smiling, holding Dawn, after she had been released from the hospital. The second picture was obviously a candid picture, with her sitting on the couch, holding Dawn, Angel sitting on the floor by her feet.  
  
"Aww." She murmured, then looking up at both Angel and Willow. "Guys, I love it! It's gorgeous. And I actually don't look that bad in these pics." Joyce laughed, as Buffy hugged first Angel, and then Willow. "I really love it!"  
  
"Here, open this one next." Xander held out his gift. Buffy laughed, and took the large box.  
  
PAGE BREAK  
  
Author's Note: We're now jumping ahead, from Buffy's birthday, to the big ending. But there are still some things that we're going to cover. I just REALLY want to put some parts in here. So...on to the story!  
  
"Professor Lillian?" Buffy said, standing in the classroom doorway.  
  
"Buffy." The teacher acknowledged her, fighting with a slide stuck in the projector.  
  
"I'm sorry that I missed the lecture today. Was it good?" He gives her a look. "Um, of course it was. D-do you want me to try?  
  
"Yes, thanks, the slide is stuck in the ... thing." He gestured helpfully.  
  
"Um, I just ... came by to tell you that ... I have to drop this class. Um, all my classes actually. I'm not finishing the semester. I wish it ... um ... I just, I can't be in school right now. I-I had a baby this summer, and things at home aren't going to well at the moment. I-I just need to be home with her right now."  
  
"I understand."  
  
"Um, I have these forms from the registrar's office that I need you to sign." She gave him the papers.  
  
"Oh ... yes." He put the papers on the table, and put on his glasses to read them. Buffy waits while he signs the papers and gives them back.  
  
"Thanks." She put them in her bag as the professor took his glasses back off. Then she looked back up at him.  
  
"Is there something else?"  
  
"No. Yes. Yeah. Um ... I wanted to tell you ... how much I enjoyed this class. I mean, I know that I wasn't the best student, but ... I really learned a lot. Uh, and I really like poetry. I really do. And I hope...that maybe once things are better, I can come back. Next year, maybe. A-and hopefully I'll be back next semester. I just can't deal right now."  
  
"I understand."  
  
"Thanks. So, uh, bye." She waved, stuffing the papers into her bag, and leaving the classroom.  
  
END OF UPDATE  
  
Yeah, I know that chapter kinda sucked. More scriptiness, less me-ish. But I promise you that the finale will be totally me! I've already gotten it written out! I just have to borrow a few things from the original script, but other than that, it's all new stuff!  
  
Things to look for in the next update:  
  
Willow and Tara's first fight  
  
Bye bye Tara brains.  
  
Events leading up to the End!!! 


	12. Part Twelve

Divine Interference  
  
Part Twelve  
  
Posted: June 10, 2004  
  
Disclaimer: see previous parts (I hope...)  
  
Author's notes: Ok, sorry, but this is more of the same old crap. Next chapter, I promise, will be a bit of old crap, and a lot of new crap, I hope. I seem to have misplaced the ending that I wrote when I first started this story, so we're flying solo now. No notes or handwritten drafts. Just went through all the fanfic pages, a whole binder full, that I have at the desk, and it's definitely lost. Oh well. I'll figure something out!  
  
I emailed fanfiction.net the other day about whatever taking away my dividers, hopefully that's taken care of, but it's better safe than sorry.  
  
READER RESPONSES:  
  
START OF STORY:  
  
Buffy entered the shop, holding Dawn. She waved to Anya as she headed down the stairs, toward the table.  
  
"Hey, what's up? It's the Buffster, and ickle Dawnie-pooh." Xander tickled Dawn's feet.  
  
"Hey everybody."  
  
"I trust everything went well at the university?" Giles asked.  
  
"Yep, I'm, uh, all dropped out," she sat down at the table, sitting dawn on the table.  
  
"Good on you. Welcome to the real world. Lot of fun to be had on the outside," he looked at Willow, "You'll see."  
  
"I think by having Dawn, that qualified me for the real world, Xander. But, yeah...unemployed single mom... But, it's just for now. I mean, I'm thinking that I'm probably gonna go back next semester. Once everything settles back down...with this Glory thing hanging over us..."  
  
"And that's cool too. Whatever you choose, you've got my support. Just think of me as..." he laughed nervously, racking his brains for something, "as your..." he frowned, not coming up with anything appropriate. Buffy looked up at him, curious. "You know, I'm searching for supportive things, and I'm comin' up all bras, so..." Buffy smiled at her long time best friend, "something slightly more manly, think of me as that. Seriously. Whatever you need."  
  
PAGE BREAK  
  
"So it's her. Under our noses all this time. I like the detail work those monks did. Quirks, foibles, passions ... it's all so cute, so ... human. You know?" Glory asked her minions, sitting on the couch, with three minions before her. They all nod and smile. "Pretty convincing really. But not convincing enough." She slowly stands up and looks each demon in the eye. "You all know your assignments." She smiled widely, happy at the prospect of finally finding the key, "I think it's time to collect the key."  
  
PAGE BREAK  
  
"Um, Buffy? Can I ask you something?"  
  
"Sure Wills, as long as you don't mind the smell of poopy diapers. Yuck." She threw the offensive diaper in the trash.  
  
"Um...I was wondering if it was ok if...Tara came over tonight. We're gonna do research, and she might end up...staying the night."  
  
"It's fine with me, just, make sure it's ok with Angel, it is his house too, now that he's hanging out a lot."  
  
"Ok, thanks."  
  
"Oh, uh, Will? Do you think you could watch Dawn, so Angel could help me on patrol?"  
  
"Yeah, sure."  
  
"Thanks." She picked up the child.  
  
PAGE BREAK  
  
"Have you noticed that..."  
  
"What?" Tara asked, looking up from where she was playing with Dawn on the floor. Buffy and Angle had pulled an all nighter slay-a-thon, so they was sleeping, leaving the two witches to watch the baby.  
  
"Buffy's been sorta Miss Crabby lately."  
  
"Understandable, about the crabby, though. She has to look after Dawn now."  
  
"Yeah, but not in a All night slayer type way. She's going to wear herself out."  
  
"I-I had to help raise my brother after...I mean, you can't really know what it's like to-"  
  
"Yeah, I know that." Tara makes a noise of displeasure, frowns, sits on the bed next to Willow.  
  
"I, I didn't mean to-"  
  
"No, I just ... I ... I know I can't know what it's like. I don't have a child of my own, nor have I had to raise one." Tara frowns at her, "But I just ..." she laughed, and it sounded fake, even to her, "It's no big."  
  
"I made you mad."  
  
"No. No." She denied it.  
  
"All I meant was-"  
  
"No, it's okay. This whole Buffy thing, let's just forget it."  
  
"No, please. I mean, I mean, tell me if I said something wrong, otherwise I know I'll say it again. Probably often and in public."  
  
"No, I was snippy gal. It's just ... I know I can't ... on some level..." she sighed, "it's like my opinion isn't worth anything because I haven't been through ...I didn't have to raise a child, so I don't know."  
  
"Well ... I-I'm not the expert. I mean, I've only had to raise Ronny...and my cousin." Willow gave her a sympathetic smile. Tara looks anxious. "Do ... I act like ... the big knowledge woman?"  
  
"No." Willow said weakly.  
  
"Is that no spelled Y-E-S?"  
  
"S-O-R-T of. I mean, I just feel like the-the junior partner. You've been doing everything longer than me. You've been out longer ... you've been practicing witchcraft way longer."  
  
"Oh, but you're way beyond me there! In just a few- I mean ... it frightens me how powerful you're getting."  
  
"That's a weird word." Willow commented.  
  
"Getting?"  
  
"It frightens you? I frighten you?" Willow asked, brow creased.  
  
"That is so not what I meant." She jumped up from the floor, "I meant i- impresses - impressive."  
  
"Well, I took Psych 101. I mean, I took it from an evil government scientist who was skewered by her Frankenstein-like creation before the final, but I know what a Freudian slip is." Tara looked at her, upset. "D- don't you trust me?"  
  
"With my life."  
  
"That's not what I mean." Willow said.  
  
"Can't we just go to the fair?" Tara pleaded.  
  
"I don't feel real multicultural right now. Wh ... what is it about me that you don't trust?"  
  
"It's not that. I worry, sometimes. You're, you're changing so much, so fast. I don't know where you're heading."  
  
"Where I'm heading?"  
  
"I'm saying everything wrong." She shook her head.  
  
"No, I think you're being pretty clear. This isn't about the witchcraft. It's about the other changes in my life."  
  
"I trust you. I just...I don't know where I'm gonna fit in ... in your life when..."  
  
"When ... I change back? Yeah, this is a college thing, just a, a little experimentation before I get over the thrill and head back to boys' town." She waited for an answer, and got none, "You think that?"  
  
"Should I?" The tension and raised voices was getting to Dawn, who began to fuss. Willow immediately picked her up.  
  
"I'm really sorry that I didn't establish my lesbo street cred before I got into this relationship. You're the only woman I've ever fallen in love with, so ... how on earth could you ever take me seriously?" She jiggled Dawn, walking towards the door.  
  
"Willow, please!"  
  
"Have fun at the fair." Willow left, slamming the door, leaving Tara alone in the apartment. Buffy came out of her bedroom a few minutes later.  
  
"What's going on?" she yawned.  
  
"Nothing, just go back to bed. Willow's got Dawn." Tara grabbed her coat, and rushed out the door.  
  
"What happened?" Buffy asked herself, as Angel came out of her room as well, where he was sleeping on the floor.  
  
"You know as much as me," she yawned, "I'm going back to bed."  
  
"Me too." She yawned and followed him back into her bedroom.  
  
PAGE BREAK  
  
Willow stalked down the street, hardly paying attention to the fussy child in her arms. How could Tara feel that way? Didn't she know she loved her?  
  
Dawn started crying, forcing Willow to pay attention to the nine month old.  
  
"What's wrong, Dawnie?" she bounced the child as she walked, her feet taking her...somewhere, "Do you miss her already too?"  
  
Willow certainly didn't know where she was going, but her feet did, when she showed up at the Magic Shop a couple minutes later. Dawn was quieter than she had been, and once inside, Willow put her in her swing. Then she began browsing aimlessly.  
  
"I hope this isn't a return. Everyone wants petrified hamsters and they're never happy with them." Giles muttered, opening a package. Willow walked over to the counter, leaning on it. Giles noticed her glum expression. "You all right?" he asked, concerned.  
  
"Yeah." She said, unconvincingly.  
  
"Ah yes, because your good mood is both obvious and contagious."  
  
"I had a fight with Tara. It was awful."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry." He took the box over to the shelves behind the counter.  
  
"Me too." Willow said glumly.  
  
"You two don't quarrel much, do you?" Giles observed  
  
"Never. Until today."  
  
"Well, now it's over." Giles said, nonchalant.  
  
"Over? How can it be over? I just found her!" Willow started to freak out.  
  
"The quarrel is over," Giles clarified.  
  
"Oh. Yeah."  
  
"Uh, you'll feel better when you've made your apologies and you'll know that you can fight without the world ending." He starts towards the rear door, "I know it all seems bleak now, but as they say, this too..." Giles opened the door to discover one of Glory's demons, Slook, listening at the door. Slook falls into the room. "...shall pass." Willow and Anya both stare at the minion.  
  
Giles grabbed the demon by the ear, dragged him into the shop and threw him into a chair. Willow and Anya rush over.  
  
"Wow!"  
  
"Now, what do we have here?" Giles asked.  
  
"Oh, he's one of those things that work for Glory!" Anya said, smiling.  
  
"Yes. How helpful." Giles replied.  
  
"I do indeed work for the god. Let me go if you do not wish to incur her anger," Slook told them, trying to sound tough.  
  
"Well, she's not here. What a marvelous opportunity for you and me to talk," Giles told him.  
  
"I will not betray Glorificus. I will never talk, no matter what heinous torture-" "Actually, you're talking quite a lot, just not about the right things. Tell us why you're here." Giles ordered.  
  
"No words shall pass my lips that will bring peril to Glorificus."  
  
Giles doesn't take his eyes off the demon, but points with his hand. "Girls, get the twine that's on the counter, let's tie him up." Willow and Anya turn away to get the rope, only to turn back a moment later as Slook begins to sob.  
  
"No, no! I'll tell you! Anything! Please! Whatever you want! Just, I'll, anything!" The girls walk back over.  
  
"What happened?" Anya asked.  
  
"He changed his mind," Giles told her.  
  
"I'm ... I'm supposed to watch. We're watching the Slayer's people ... while Glory fetches the key." Everyone looks alarmed.  
  
"Glory knows who the key is?" Willow asked, terrified, not realizing that she was taking care of Dawn for the day.  
  
"Oh god." Giles removed his glasses.  
  
"We've got to call Buffy." Anya said.  
  
"Too late. Too late. Glorificus will find the witch, and there's nothing you can do to stop her."  
  
"Witch? What do you mean?" Anya asked, confused. Last she knew, Dawn was the key...and she wasn't a witch. Children didn't come into their powers until they were over a year of age...  
  
"Tara!" Willow said, horrified. Willow starts to run out.  
  
"She's the new one among you. It wasn't hard to figure out. The glorious one will have found her by now."  
  
"Willow, wait! I'll go with-"Giles yelled after her.  
  
"No! Call Buffy a-and go look in Tara's room, I'm gonna check the fair." She ran out.  
  
PAGE BREAK  
  
Tara sat sadly on an empty bench, watching the happy people around her, at the Diversity fair. She just couldn't get into the mood, when Willow was mad at her.  
  
She felt her had being picked up, and though she had not heard her approach; she looked down at her lover's hand. Then she looked up into the face of evil.  
  
"Is this seat taken?" Glory asked, wrinkling her nose. Tara just gasped in fear. "Oh, this is nice. Just hangin' out, just us girls. You like that sort of thing, don't you?" She squeezes Tara's hand to break a few bones. "Don't make a sound." Tara looks around at the people enjoying a day of diversity, "Nah. They won't help you. I'd kill them. You know that. There's no one here that can stop me." Tara continues to gasp and pant at the pain being inflicted on her hand.  
  
"I'll kill her and ... and them. I'll kill him, and her and her," she laughs, "and it'll all be your fault," she said, pointing out random people, "Kinda funny, isn't it? All these people here and ... no one who can do a thing. Not a person who can help you." Tara whimpers and turns her head to look at Glory. "But that's people for ya. They're pretty worthless. But keys, on the other hand ... keys are worth a very lot." Glory smiles and brings their clenched hands up to lick off some of the blood. Then she makes a disgusted face and spits.  
  
"You lying little tramp! You're not the key! You're nothing! Just another worthless human being!"  
  
"I didn't-"Tara stutters.  
  
"I hate being lied to. It makes me feel so betrayed. Hey! You wanna make it all better?" Tara looks at her with fear. "If you tell me who the key really is ... I'll let you go." Tara looks alarmed. Glory gives her hand another squeeze and she whimpers again as more bones crack.  
  
"Think about it. You think your hand hurts? Imagine what you'd feel with my fingers wiggling in your brain. It doesn't kill you. What it does ... is make you feel like you're in a noisy little dark room ..." Glory begins to fidget, uncomfortable, "naked and ashamed ... and there are things in the dark that need to hurt you because you're bad ... little pinching things that go in your ears ..." Tara begins to cry, "and crawl on the inside of your skull. And you know ... that if the noise and the crawling would stop ... that you could remember how to get out." Glory contemplates this as Tara continues to cry quietly. Then Glory turns to look at Tara again. "But you never, ever will." Glory squeezes her hand again and Tara gives another cry of pain.  
  
"Who ... is ... the key?" Tara forces herself to stop crying and look Glory in the eye, saying nothing. "Fine. Let's get crazy." Glory caresses the side of Tara's face with her other hand. Tara whimpers and tries to pull her face away.  
  
"Tara!" Willow yells, running through the crowds. "Tara!" Willow runs towards Tara and Glory on the bench. "By force of heart and mindful power, by waning time and waxing hour ..." she started to chant, to save her lover.  
  
Glory put her hands on Tara's head. People keep walking past like nothing strange was happening.  
  
"I echo Diana, um, when I decree ... uh, what is it, what is it?" Willow cried, forgetting the spell. "No! No!" she looked up to see Glory caressing Tara's head.  
  
The light begins to stream out as Glory's fingers enter Tara's head. Both Tara and Glory cry out.  
  
Willow reaches the edge of the path but is blocked by the Chinese dragon people and has to stop. "That she I love must now be free!"  
  
Glory's fingers are still in her head and the light streaming out as Tara makes a pained face. People continue walking past. Willow strained to see around the people.  
  
"Tara!" The crowd clears momentarily and Willow sees Tara sitting alone on the bench with her head lolling to one side. "No!!" Willow runs over and sits on the bench, grabs Tara by the shoulders. Tara doesn't react or look at her. "Tara, Tara, are you okay?" she cried, petrified.  
  
"It's dirty. It's all dirty. And all over me!" Tara cried. She begins brushing at her stomach as if to brush off dirt. "Dirty. Dirty. I'm bad. Bad." She whimpered.  
  
"Tara. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Willow cried, tears running down her face. Willow pulls Tara's head down onto her shoulder and rocks her gently. 


	13. Part Thirteen

Divine Interference  
  
Part Thirteen  
  
Disclaimer: see previous sections. There's at least one in there.  
  
Posted: July 24, 2004  
  
Author's notes: I am so sorry to have not updated sooner. Things have been more than busy around here at my house, and this sadly had to take a back seat. I hope this is definitely long enough for you, being 12 pages, without any formatting. I have a few more updates to go, before the story will be done with. I hope you guys like the ending, I love it.  
  
I am also teasing the idea of a sequel. But I need your guys' opinions. If you think it wouldn't ruin the story to have a sequel, then let me know. And if you think it will ruin it, well, let me know.  
  
I've gotten pretty good at transferring scripts into past tense, but if I missed anything, let me know please.  
  
That's about it! Enjoy your incredibly long update!  
  
Oh, if you think they should be shorter next time, let me know!  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Malfeus: Sorry, I don't see any Xander babysitting in this story. Maybe in the sequel, if the populace agrees on one? I've already got an idea for when it would take place, but she'd still need a babysitter.... Thanks for the review!  
  
Oh, what's the exposition song?  
  
Melluvben: smiles secretly just you wait until the end, ok? And even in this chapter (I think) you get some of your wish. Maybe not 'action' as you call it, but...well, just read!  
  
Bluie: poor you and your strained eyes from studying. Yeah, I think this will be the first chapter in this whole entire story to not have tense issues. I have tense issues, for God's sake! My writing teacher said that all writing should be in the present tense, but that just doesn't make sense, or sound right to me! Garg! Here's your next update, from your favorite season :D  
  
(START OF STORY)  
  
They were all in Tara's hospital room. Giles looked at some X-rays of a hand that were posted on the wall. He removed his glasses and wiped his eyes as he turns towards Anya, Xander, and Tara, sitting on the edge of an exam table wearing a hospital gown. She looked straight ahead with a glazed expression. Her hand is bandaged. Willow sat beside her.  
  
"Can she go home now?" Willow asked the doctor.  
  
"Unfortunately, no. Hospital policy dictates we keep her for the night," the doctor explained.  
  
"But does she have to? I-I can take care of her at home."  
  
"It's poisoned," Tara said suddenly, then turned to Willow, "Why don't I tell you that? It, it has to be checked, though." Willow looked sad. Tara looked confused.  
  
"She your sister?" the doctor asked.  
  
"I-i-it has to be verified, of course. Anyone can tell you that. Of course," She looked from one person to the next, "Of course, of course."  
  
"She's my everything," Willow said softly.  
  
"Well, you can get her released first thing in the morning. But she's gotta spend one night in the psych ward. Just for observation. We'll keep an eye on her, do a couple basic tests, and then you can take her home. Does that sound fair?" Willow nodded. "Well, sit tight then, and I'll send a nurse by in a few minutes to pick up Tara." The doctor left as Anya and Xander gave Willow concerned looks. Willow stood and brushed hair back from Tara's face.  
  
Buffy entered soon after the doctor left. "Hey. Will, I'm so sorry." She hugged Willow, looking over her shoulder at Tara. Tara stared vaguely at nothing. Willow had tears in her eyes as Buffy let her go. She looked at Tara who gives her a huge smile.  
  
"They kill mice."  
  
"Tara." Buffy hugged Tara, who didn't react. Buffy pulled back slowly and looked at Willow. "I'm sorry it took me so long, I couldn't get a hold of Angel, but Dawn's safe with Spike, so I-I can stay as long as you need." Willow put her hand over Tara's non-bandaged hand.  
  
"I'm so scared." Buffy put her hand on Willow's cheek.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
"Nothin' to be worried about, kid." Spike said to the baby on his hip, feeling strange about it. He was going through his underground cavern. Spike moved a little slowly and with a slight limp. "No one's gonna hurt you. Chin up, platelet. Don't get scared. Maybe Glory doesn't wanna kill you, maybe it's something...worse." He sighed, trying to figure out how to get up the ladder into his crypt, and still hold onto Dawn.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
Tara sat in a wheelchair, while a nurse is trying to settle her. Tara pushed at the nurse's hands trying to stop her.  
  
"Don't! Please don't with that treachery!" She calmed down slightly as the nurse went around behind the wheelchair and began to wheel her out. Tara looked up at Willow. "I told the cat. And now I beg my mother sitting all alone."  
  
"Bye, Tara. I'll see you tomorrow. I love you," Willow told her.  
  
Tara whimpered as the nurse wheeled her out. She reached her good hand back toward Willow. Willow watched her go, Xander stepping into her path to stop her from going after Tara.  
  
"Willow. No. It's just for one night."  
  
"Yeah, I-I know, but ... it's a whole night. I don't think I can sleep without her," She said, looking at the ground, then back up at her life long friend.  
  
"You can sleep with me," Anya said, without thinking. "Well, now that came out a lot more lesbian than it sounded in my head."  
  
"Will, you just have to rest. Okay? Right now there's nothing you can do," Buffy told her friend.  
  
"Yes there is," Willow realized.  
  
"No. No way." Buffy chases Willow out into the hallway and stopped her. "You cannot even think about taking on Glory."  
  
"You saw what she did to Tara. I can't let her get away with it."  
  
"No. You have to let her get away with it. Even I'm no match for her, you know that."  
  
"But maybe I am," She turned to go but Buffy grabbed her arm.  
  
"You're not. And I won't let you go!"  
  
"This is not your choice. It's mine."  
  
"This is not the time."  
  
"When, Buffy? When is? When you feel like it? When it's someone you love as much as I love Tara? When it's Dawn, is that it?"  
  
"When we have a chance. We'll fight her, when we have a chance. You wouldn't last five minutes with her, Willow. She's a god."  
  
Willow shook her head, "Fine. I'll wait," she said, only to make Buffy happy.  
  
"It's the only way," Buffy tried to placate her.  
  
"Yeah," Willow said skeptically, walking away.  
  
"Can I do anything?" Buffy asked after her.  
  
"Just let me be alone." Buffy watched her go with a concerned expression.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
Willow burst into the Magic Box and headed straight for the forbidden section. She opened a bag, and started pulling books and other items into the bag, including vials and knives.  
  
She shoved books off the shelves every which way, looking for something in particular. Finally she found it, and pulled out one very large old book and put it on the floor in front of her. The cover read Darkest Magick. The book had a metal lock holding it shut. Willow grabbed a small axe from the shelf and hit the lock with it. The lock broke and the book's pages flipped open. The pages continued to flip past as if blown by a wind.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
Buffy continued staring after her friend, before turning to Giles. "I don't like this. If something like this happened to any of you, or...or Angel, I would spaz."  
  
"What are you going to do?"  
  
She thought a moment, "Can you keep trying to get a hold of Angel? Tell him Spike has Dawn. I'm gonna go after her."  
  
"Are you sure that's wise?" Giles asked.  
  
"No, but what other choice do I have?" He considered it, then nodded, and she ran off.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
Glory walked unsteadily down the stairs, followed by three minions. "You know, I think I'm a little buzzed from eating that witch! What a mind she has. Mmm, nummy treat."  
  
"Is your grace not the slightest bit concerned about-" a minion started.  
  
"What, about the Slayer? Don't be stupid. I know I'm closing in. The key's as good as mine. Girl like Buffy's got just so many friends. All I gotta do it rip through 'em one by one until I finally..." The walls began to shake and rattle, and she stopped. Things fell off from the shelves on the walls, smashing. Glory looked around confused, as did her minions, who were terrified. "Did anybody order an apocalypse?"  
  
The door flew open, and Willow floated in, a few inches from the ground, hair being teased by an unseen wind.  
  
"Kali, Hera, Kronos, Tonic...Air like nectar, thick as onyx...Cassiel by your second star..."  
  
Uhh. It's the lover," Glory sighed, starting to walk towards Willow, "That's so cute."  
  
"Hold mine victim as in tar," Willow finished the spell, as the air thickened around Glory, and she couldn't move. She looked at Willow with surprise.  
  
"I ... owe ... you ... pain!" Blue lightning flashed out of Willow's hands toward Glory. Glory screamed and clutched her shoulders.  
  
"Shatter." Willow commanded, and the mirrors in the room shattered, the glass flying towards Glory, slicing her dress, but not harming her.  
  
"Is that it? Is that the best you can do? You think I care about all this, the apartment, the clothes?" She pulled off the shredded dress to reveal a black negligee underneath. She plowed through the thick air and backhanded Willow, who flew into the sofa, and it toppled under her, so she landed on the floor. "Now, sucking on your girlfriend's mind? That was something to treasure."  
  
Willow pulled herself to her feet, her pretty face covered by an angry mask, her eyes black. Blood slowly trickled from her mouth and down her chin.  
  
The black bag, from where Willow had left it on the floor, slid across the room to her side. Willow looked at it, and it opened, answering her unasked command.  
  
"What's this? Bag of tricks?" Glory asked.  
  
A bunch of daggers were lifted up out of the bag.  
  
"Bag of knives." Willow answered, sending the daggers toward Glory, who just batted them aside. One buried itself in the wall. "Spirit of serpents now appear," Willow started a new spell.  
  
Glory threw the coffee table at Willow, knocking her down. Willow propped herself up on her elbows and glared at Glory.  
  
"Hissing, writhing, striking near," she finished her spell. A snake appeared out of the carpet and winds itself around Glory's leg. Glory shook the snake off, and it disappeared in a puff of smoke.  
  
Glory walked towards where Willow lay on the ground, panting, "Now this is getting weak." She grabbed Willow by the throat and pulled her to a sitting position. "And so are you, honey. Aren't ya?" In response, Willow spat in Glory's face. Glory grabbed Willow's arm and dragged her across the floor, grabbing a dagger from where it was lying, and continues out of the room.  
  
"No!" Willow cried. Glory shoved Willow against the wall, holding her by the throat.  
  
"Know what they used to do to witches, lover? Crucify 'em." Glory pulled her arm holding the dagger back, ready to stab Willow, when Buffy appeared and grabbed Glory's wrist.  
  
"They used to bow down to gods." Glory smiled in delight, but Buffy kicked her in the stomach, which made Glory let go of Willow, who fell to the floor. Buffy twisted Glory's arm and punched her. "Things change."  
  
Buffy cart wheeled across the floor and kicked Glory in the face, punched her a few times, kicked her again, and then spun around to get momentum for another punch but Glory blocked it. Buffy did a flip and kicked Glory in the face, before trying to punch Glory a few more times, but the god evaded. Glory pinned Buffy's arms behind her back and threw her over the upturned sofa.  
  
"That witch barely slowed me down." Glory glared at Buffy, who kicked the sofa, which flew forwards and pinned Glory against the wall. Buffy jumped up and ran to Willow, helping her up. Glory shoved the sofa aside and started towards them as Buffy began to lead Willow out of the apartment.  
  
"Thicken," Willow said as a last resort, which made the air around Glory thicken, stopping her in her tracks as Buffy and Willow escaped.  
  
"This isn't over, you hear me? It isn't over!" Glory screamed after them. She sighed in annoyance.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
"I'm sorry, Buffy," Willow said once they were far enough away.  
  
"I understand why you did it. If it was you, or Xander, or Giles, even Angel, I would have done the same thing."  
  
"I hate seeing Tara like that. She's helpless!" Willow said, as tears formed in her eyes.  
  
"Then she can come live with us, ok? You helped me with Dawn, you still are, so I'll do all I can to help with Tara." Willow nodded. "I'm sorry that I couldn't...but we'll get through this, one step at a time."  
  
"Yeah..." Willow said uncertainly.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
After Willow went and signed Tara out, Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn sat in the middle of the living room, Buffy had pushed aside all the furniture, and they sat on the floor. Angel had made sandwiches for them, before he retired to Buffy's room, not wanting to join them.  
  
"What's Tara got?" Willow asked as Buffy sorted through the sandwiches.  
  
"Uh...tuna fish ok?" Buffy asked both Tara and Willow.  
  
"Plastic and their six sisters. Six sick sisters," Tara said, then turned to Willow, "Willow?" she whined, uncertain, confused.  
  
"It's okay," Willow soothed her, "Let's just start slow today. Um, Buffy, could I have that?" She pointed towards a thing of applesauce, and Buffy handed her the cup and a spoon. Dawn crawled over towards Tara, and she whined. Buffy picked up her daughter, setting her down with a plastic toy.  
  
"Here you go," Willow said softly, spooning some applesauce out for Tara, who ate it uncertainly, "That's my girl."  
  
"What did they give you?" Buffy asked, taking the plastic sandwich bag away from Dawn hurriedly.  
  
"I don't know. They gave me a lot of stuff to ... keep her calm. They said I might have to restrain her at night. But ... sometimes she's fine. She looks at me, and ... she's fine," Willow almost pleaded.  
  
"I'm sorry I couldn't-" she tried again.  
  
"It's okay. I can do this. I'm gonna take care of her. Even if she never..." Dawn squealed and started crawling towards Willow, "She's my girl."  
  
Buffy looked sympathetically at Willow, picking up Dawn as she zoomed across the carpet, "I understand."  
  
"I know you do," Willow nodded. Buffy smiled at her, and Willow returned it, "Hear that, baby? You're my always." Willow kissed Tara on the forehead as Buffy set Dawn down on the other side of her. Suddenly, the apartment started rattling, and the door and half the wall was ripped down, Dawn already heading towards the destruction, curious. Buffy grabbed her as sunlight streamed in. Glory appeared at the door.  
  
"I told you this wasn't over," she said. Buffy instinctively crushed Dawn to her, who squawked.  
  
"No. The place is cracking! It's cracking! Cracking, no, no, no!" Tara cried out in fright.  
  
"No, Tara, it's okay," Willow tried to calm her. Dawn squealed in a mix of outrage and excitement, drawing Tara's attention.  
  
Tara gasped, staring at Dawn, "Oh, look at that, look at that. The light! Oh, it's so pure! Such pure green energy! Innocent and pure!"  
  
Buffy gasped and looked at Glory, her fear evident on her face. She looked towards the bedroom, wishing Angel would come and help her.  
  
"Oh, it's so beautiful," Tara reached for Dawn. Glory smiled looking at Dawn as if she was a thousand dollar bill. Buffy shifted her daughter to her other hip, putting herself between Glory and her child.  
  
Without thinking, Buffy grabbed a sling from where it was in the wash pile nearby, struggling to get Dawn in as she ran down the hall. She finally got Dawn in and strapped it on as she kicked down her bedroom door. She could hear Glory following her, and didn't look back, hoping Willow was doing something to stop her.  
  
Angel sat straight up from where he was resting in her bed as the door fell. He grabbed for a weapon instinctively, before his eyes were open. "Buffy?"  
  
She didn't stop to talk as she clung to a now screaming Dawn. There was no other way out of the apartment, only one door...She'd just have to make one.  
  
She dived through the nearest window and shade, sunlight fighting to get in as she fought to get out. She heard Angel cry out behind her as the sun touched his skin. In that moment, she knew she really loved him. If they survived this, she'd give him another chance.  
  
She pushed the thought aside as the ground rushed to greet her. Sure, she had dived out of a few windows in her day, but never with a screaming, fighting child strapped to her chest. She couldn't let Dawn get hurt, but she needed to be able to protect her.  
  
"Hold on, sweetie-" she twisted around right before she hit the ground, taking the impact on her shoulder. It screamed in pain, but she continued her roll. Once she could sit up, she jumped to her feet arms still wrapped around the baby in front of her, and ran. Ran faster than she had ever in the past.  
  
She didn't know where she was going, but she ended up at a familiar crypt. Thank God Angel had been out of town when the Buffy-bot thing had went down.  
  
"What the blazes-Oh, it's you."  
  
"I need your help, please, Spike. Glory knows," she leaned back against the crypt wall as she tried to calm Dawn. The adrenalin was filtering out, and mind-numbing fear was taking hold.  
  
"You have to get out of town. I know just the way. I suspect the Girls Scouts and Brood Miser are coming along, eh? Meet me in the hospital parking garage in an hour," he didn't wait for an answer as he jumped down into the lower part of his crypt and stalked off towards the sewers.  
  
Tears pushed against her eyes, but she fought them back. If she let herself go to pieces, they'd lose. And she'd lose Dawn.  
  
She pulled out her cell phone and began dialing, rubbing Dawn's back with the other hand.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
"We're not coming with you."  
  
"What?!" she jiggled Dawn as they waited for Spike.  
  
"We'll just be in the way. Ayn knows a place where we can hide, and be off Glory's radar. Will has super witch powers, Angel's a vampire, and Giles is big on the knowledge. We can't offer you anything."  
  
Buffy's resolve was going fast, "But I need you! You hold this group together! With your- y-our jokes, and getting of snacks! I can't lose you!"  
  
He hugged hr close, mindful of Dawn, "You're not. There are only Five Scooby positions, and I'm letting Angel borrow mine."  
  
"You'll be ok?" her question was muffled by his shirt.  
  
"I'll be just ducky."  
  
Just then a camper pulled up, and the door was pushed open from the inside.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes, Go."  
  
Angel quietly led her into the camper. The others were surprised he didn't make a stink about Spike being there as he led Buffy into the back room. He sat her silently on the bed, and he knelt before her and pulled Dawn from the sling, setting her on the middle of the bed, before taking Buffy into his arms. All the tears she had been holding back came busting through, and he held her as her body shook with silent sobs.  
  
Forty-five minutes later she had composed herself once more. After making sure she didn't look like she'd been crying, she put in a brave face and stepped into the living area. Angel stayed with Dawn to put her down for a nap, giving her time alone with her friends.  
  
"So, what's the plan?" Willow asked, her arm comfortingly around Tara.  
  
"Keep driving. Don't stop. We'll all take shifts. Get the hell out of dodge and as far away as possible."  
  
"Buffy, running is not necessarily the right course of action-"  
  
"She's nine months old, Giles! She doesn't understand what's going on! And I can't fight Glory, she's too strong. What do you suggest we do?"  
  
"She must have some weakness, we just haven't looked hard enough yet."  
  
"You and Will have exhausted both your resources, and yourselves. Cordy and Wes have been working around the clock. Gunn, one of Angel's buddies, is scouring the streets for news. And an empathic demon is doing all he can. She doesn't have a weakness. And I can't fight her," she whispered.  
  
"We'll find a way, Buffy, don't worry," Willow said with conviction.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
"So the key...is an infant," Glory smiled, "Never would'a thought...tricky monks," she giggled.  
  
"My queen, they're not in the town."  
  
"We'll find them. Oh, we'll find them."  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
It was Giles's turn to drive, with everyone sitting around the table, cramped. Spike slid off the seat next to Tara and stayed on the floor, Buffy and Angel were trying to keep Dawn occupied. Willow had pulled out one of her books awhile before, and was paging through it.  
  
"I almost feel like I should be asking, 'are we there yet?'" Buffy said softly.  
  
"That only works when you know where you're going," Angel told her, picking up Dawn from her lap.  
  
"Does anyone have any idea where we're going?" Willow asked, not looking up from her book.  
  
"We'd already be somewhere if Captain Slowpoke would give up the wheel," Spike muttered. Neither vampire was happy to be in such cramped quarters together. "Hey Gramps! Bloody step on it!"  
  
"Step on what? I've driven tricycles with more power," Giles muttered, squinting through the hole of tinfoil. He didn't manage to miss the bumps in the road, and the vehicle jostled.  
  
"I should'a nicked that Porsche I had my eye on," Spike said quietly to Dawn, who was now back on Buffy's lap, leaning over the seat, "Just enough room for you and mum."  
  
Angel glared at him.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Would you give it a rest already?"  
  
"Why? I've had enough rest in my 150 years of being undead. Though not as much as you have."  
  
"Be careful, or you'll be undead man walking. I'd like to see you hitchhike a ride, with your thumb on fire," Angel growled.  
  
"Fine," Spike sulked. He wanted to throw an insult right back at his poofy grandsire, but Buffy was looking pale and worn, so he didn't.  
  
Angel sighed, deciding to get as far away from Spike s he could.  
  
"That guy's rubbing my last nerve the wrong way," Angel growled as he took the seat beside Giles.  
  
"Buffy does have a point, though. In a confrontation, he could be, ah, useful."  
  
"Not sure Buffy's thinking too clear these days. I've never seen her so."  
  
"She's been through more than her fair share of late, we all have. She just needs to catch her breath, regroup. She'll be alright."  
  
"Yeah," but Angel wasn't convinced.  
  
They rode in silence, until finally, Buffy couldn't stand it anymore, "Having any luck?" she peered over at Will's book.  
  
"Uh, if you define luck as the absence of success, plenty. There's a couple barrier spells, but...they only work on a fixed locus. Haven't found anything that'll work while we're still moving."  
  
"So pretty, can I have one?" Tara asked, reaching out for Dawn.  
  
"No, baby," Willow pulled her back gently.  
  
Dawn had somehow gotten a hold of the window shade string, and she was pulling on it.  
  
"Hey! AGH!" Spike's hand was touched by the streaming light, and he jumped from his seat. Dawn started whimpering.  
  
"Shh, sweetie," Buffy bounced her, "I'm sorry, Spike. She doesn't know any better."  
  
Spike nodded, "No biggie. Look, the skin's already stopped smoking. You go ahead and play ... peek-a-boo with Mister Sunshine all you like. It keeps the ride from getting boring."  
  
"Buffy?" Angel came back from the front seat, "maybe it's time for Dawn to take another nap. She didn't sleep much last time," he used as an excuse. Buffy nodded, taking the baby into the back.  
  
Angel followed her a few minutes later, "Thanks," he said, as he closed the door.  
  
"What?"  
  
"For pretty much everything. For her," he said, touching Dawn's booted foot.  
  
"Oh, yeah, I'm doing a great job," Buffy said sarcastically.  
  
"But you are," he sat down beside her.  
  
She shook her head, "I'm the slayer. The Chosen one. All mythic and defender-y. Evil nasties are supposed to flee from me. Not the other way around."  
  
"You're not fleeing," he told her, "You're ... moving at a brisk pace."  
  
"Quaintly referred to in some cultures as the big scaredy runaway," she said sadly as she rocked Dawn, "It all just keeps on coming....Glory...Riley...now this..."  
  
"Look on the bright side."  
  
"What bright side?"  
  
"Things can't get any crazier. You've hit rock bottom, and now-"There was a crash of glass as an arrow shot through the window, and hit the far wall.  
  
"You know this is all your fault, right?" Buffy asked, handing over Dawn. She pulled the blinds a side a bit to peek out, to see a bunch of knights. "It's those damned Balthazar knights," she muttered, "Stay here!" she yelled at him, "Giles!" she yelled, rushing out into the main part of the vehicle.  
  
"I see them."  
  
"See who?" Spike asked. Several knights had caught the RV, and came up along side it. One man took aim with a crossbow, and let it fly. "Bloody Hell!" Spike dove for the floor as the bolt appeared in the wall next to him. "Weapons?" Giles asked, and Buffy threw the bag under the table to Spike.  
  
"Hello! You're driving one!" Spike yelled at Giles.  
  
"Don't hit the horsies!" Willow exclaimed.  
  
"Oh, we won't," Buffy assured her, though she wasn't sure herself, "Aim for the horsies," she told Giles, moving up beside him.  
  
She thought they were in the clear, when a sword came through the top of the camper. "Stay Low!" she called," Watch out for-" The sword once more came through the top, and if it wasn't for Spike's quick grab, Buffy would have been hit. She ducked, looking for a way through the situation.  
  
"Now would be a good time for some heroics," Spike called, holding on tight to the sword as the knight tried to pull it free.  
  
"Hatch!" she cried, jumping up onto the table. She pushed open the door, and sprung out of the camper. The swordsman finally pulled his sword free, and Buffy heard a distinct howl of pain from Spike. The knight saw Buffy as soon as she got her footing, and he thrust at her, she sidestepped, ducked his second swing, and side kicked him. He went down, and she pounced on top of him, blocking another blow, and knocking the sword away.  
  
She punched him in the face a couple times, but then he managed to block her next punch, and roll her over, so she was on bottom. They got up, grappling, and he managed to kick her in the head, throwing her over the side. In passing, she grabbed the railing to the top of the RV, and held on tight. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees another knight coming at her, this one with a mace.  
  
The knight on top of the vehicle retrieved his sword, and bent down to swing at her, but she kicked up and hit him in the face, and he fell backwards. She pulled herself back on top of the moving vehicle, and they faced off.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw another knight, this one with a grappling hook, get a hold on the camper, and began to climb.  
  
Buffy knew she had to act fast to survive, so she punched the first knight, before whirling around and hitting him with a nice, straight, strong back kick. He fell over the side with a satisfying scream.  
  
The second knight had reached the top as Buffy heard another grappling hook catch on the rail.  
  
Buffy heard the smashing of glass, and saw a knight smash through the window. She heard sounds inside, sounding like the fending off of said knight, and paid attention to the two that now were standing in front of her. She tried to think of something that would help her against two burly knights, and saw the sword the first knight had dropped on his way overboard. The only problem was the two guys were standing in between it and her. She punched the knight with the axe, kicked the other one, kicked the first one, ducked an axe swing, only to get a glancing blow from the mace, punched the mace wielder, then back flipped to kick both of them in the face.  
  
She finally reached the sword, scooping it up, twirling it around so the mace chain got stuck around it. She pulled the knight closer and spun him around, kneeing him in the stomach, throwing him overboard. She lost hold of the sword, though. The axe bearer came at her from behind, but she kicked him away, ducking another axe swing as he came at her again. She kicked him in the chest, managing to get a hold of his axe hand, keeping it at bay while she hit him again. She heard the clamber of another knight on the ladder. She slammed the axe hand and grabbed it as he let go. She swung it at him, which he ducked, before kicking him off the RV. She threw the axe at the new knight, who screamed and fell backwards.  
  
Buffy looked around, silence from both inside and out. The knights seemed to have cleared off. Buffy turned to go back down through the hatch, only to see a knight with a spear, heading straight for the front of the RV.  
  
She felt Giles twist the wheel, as she lost her balance and slammed against the top of the RV. She saw in slow motion the spear being thrown, crashing through the window, and she heard Giles's gasp of shock and pain. Buffy could feel the RV starting to go out of control, and as a last effort, she climbed over the rail and jumped free, hoping everyone inside was safe.  
  
As she sat up, the RV flew off the road, flipped over, and stopped in a spew of dust. She looked up into the bright sun, and swore.  
  
Half an hour later they were all safely out of the RV, Dawn strapped to Buffy's back, Angel and Spike hiding underneath blankets from most of the rays. Willow was helping her carry Giles, who was in so much pain he could barely walk.  
  
"We've gotta find shelter," Buffy murmured, looking over her shoulder at Dawn, who was looking listless.  
  
"Yeah, Bloody right. I'm burning up out here," Spike called.  
  
"I think we all are, Spike. In one way or another," Angel said through grinding teeth.  
  
A bit a ways away, Buffy spotted an abandoned gas station, "Head there, guys." The two vampires rushed ahead, kicking down the door, and rushing into the safety of shelter. Once Buffy and Willow had dragged Giles in, Angel slammed the door.  
  
Buffy looked around their shelter. The windows were shabbily boarded up, with strips of light coming through. To one side was waist high counter, "Spike," she nodded towards it. He cleared it off, while Angel helped her lift Giles onto it. Both British men were groaning from the effort of getting Giles on the counter; Giles from his stomach wound, oozing blood through his shirt, and Spike's mangled hands.  
  
"Thanks, Will?"  
  
"On it." Spike hurried into one of the light free corners, holding his hands close to him.  
  
"Are you ok?" Angel asked as he helped Buffy take Dawn from her back.  
  
"I'll live," she said tersely.  
  
"What about my bloody hands?" Spike asked. She went over and grabbed one to examine it. "OW! Bloody hell woman!"  
  
"They'll heal."  
  
"Florence Bloody Nightingale to the rescue," Spike muttered.  
  
Buffy went over to look out the window, seeing no one in sight.  
  
"Uh, Do we have another plan?" Willow asked, "one that doesn't involve a Winnebago and sharp objects?"  
  
"We-we'll just rest here for a moment. We've got to keep moving," Buffy said, looking to Angel for agreement.  
  
"Where will we go?" Angel didn't give her the confirmation she was looking for.  
  
"I don't know!" she could feel the tears coming on, and covered her face with her hands, "We just, we, we, we can't, can't stay here. I-it's too close to the wreck, we're too easy to find!" She heard a grunt of pain from Giles and rushed over, "Will, how is he?"  
  
Willow didn't answer right away, her hands covering Giles's puncture wound.  
  
"Will?"  
  
"I-I think I slowed the bleeding, but..."  
  
"Ok, ok, just give me a minute to think," Buffy walked away from the group, trying to get her brain to work past the exhaustion and fear to think. The flaming arrow coming through a slot in the window didn't help things.  
  
"Get down!" Another fiery arrow followed he first. Angel grabbed the first arrow with his free hand, throwing it in the dirt, putting out the fire. He reached for the second, "Damn it, Angel! Get down!"  
  
Willow pushed Tara behind the counter, Angel rushing behind her, "Baby, I need you to do me a favor, ok?" Tara nodded, whimpering, "Can you hold this?"  
  
"Shiny," Tara rocked a bit.  
  
"Yes. Can you hold it for me?"  
  
"Uh-huh." Angel handed Dawn, tired and dehydrated, over to Tara.  
  
"We've got company," Spike was over by one of the windows, peaking out, "and they've brought a bloody crusade."  
  
"Get down, Spike!" Buffy yelled at him, "Willow!"  
  
"I'm working on it!" she called, sitting beside Tara, behind the counter. Tara sat and stroked Dawn's hair, muttering pretty light.  
  
"Help me!" Angel and Spike rushed to help Buffy push whatever they could find against the door.  
  
"Go! Go! Go! Let's move! Come on, move it!" Buffy heard from outside, and the feeling of overwhelming odds came rushing over her. A knight found another door, one by the counter, and Buffy went to stop him, but he punched her, and she fell aside. Both Spike and Angel lunged at the knight. Spike went to slam the knight into the next week, but after making contact, he held his head, screaming from the pain. The knight went to use his weapon on Spike, but Angel intervened, kicking and punching the knight. He punched him right back.  
  
More knights started pounding on windows, and Spike ducked as glass fell on top of him.  
  
By this time Buffy was on her feet, taking over for Angel, parrying a blow, and knocking him unconscious.  
  
"Willow!" Buffy screamed, trying to get her to work faster, knowing it wouldn't work.  
  
The general entered through the door that had been burst down by the previous knight, "The Key, where is it?"  
  
Buffy thought quick, picking up a nearby weapon and throwing it at the general. It hit his hand, making him drop his sword. He lunged at Buffy, but Angel got behind him and slammed his fists into the top of his head. He fell sideways, into a pillar. Down for the count.  
  
"Enemies, Fly and fall," Willow said finally. Buffy looked over at her, cross-legged, with the book in her lap. But she wasn't looking at it with her eyes black. "Circling arms, raise a wall," she commanded, and Buffy heard a whoosh.  
  
Once everyone was sure the knights wouldn't come barging in, they relaxed a bit. Buffy went over to where Willow was helping Tara up, still holding Dawn, entranced.  
  
"Will, how long will it hold?"  
  
"Half a day," she sounded uncertain, "Maybe." Willow went to look out the window, "or until Heckle and Jeckle punch a hole through it.  
  
"What's the story with these role-playing rejects?" Spike asked, nudging the nearest guy, unconscious.  
  
"Let's find out." A few minutes later, with Angel's and Spike's help, she had tied the general to a pillar in the back room. Spike alerted her a half an hour later, when he came to, to see her standing there, arms crossed. Angel could be seen through the door, trying to get Dawn to sleep.  
  
"You sure Scarface here can habla the English?" Spike asked, doubtful.  
  
"He understands me. Don't you?"  
  
"You were warned we would return, Slayer."  
  
"Took you long enough. What are you supposed to be, some kind of chief?" Buffy asked, the disdain clear in her voice.  
  
"General," he sneered.  
  
"General. In charge of what, getting captured?"  
  
"You do not frighten me, child," he looked through doorway, to the baby in the vampire's arms, "The instrument of chaos must be destroyed."  
  
Buffy slapped him, "Look at her that way again, and she will be the last thing you ever see," she threatened.  
  
"As I've been told, you protect the key of the beast."  
  
"It's not that simple."  
  
"Yes. The key has been transformed, given ... breath, life. Yet, this makes no difference. The key is the link. The link must be severed Such is the will of God."  
  
"She doesn't remember anything about being this key you're all looking for. She's a baby! The only thing she remembers is warm arms holding her, rocking her to sleep! What kind of god would demand her life for something that she has no control over?" He did not seem impressed by what Buffy had to say, "We are not your enemy. Tell your men to stand down."  
  
He looked through the doorway again, and Buffy moved to block his view. "No."  
  
"It is not her fault! She's human now!" she herself looked backwards at her child, rubbing her eyes tiredly as the man she loved walked her to sleep.  
  
"The key is too dangerous ... to be allowed to exist. No matter what form it has been pressed into."  
  
"I will not let anyone tell me-" a wail interrupted her from the next room. She could hear Willow murmuring to Tara. Buffy looked at Spike, telling him silently that he was in charge, before leaving the room, "What's wrong?"  
  
"I don't know, she just went nuts," Willow said, franticly trying to sooth her.  
  
"Time! Time! Time!" Tara cried, running over to one of the boarded up windows, trying to get through. Willow ran after her, trying to get her away from the window. Tara broke free and ran to another window. Willow grabbed her torso, pinning her arms to her side.  
  
"Tara! We have to do something! She, she can't stay this way. Buffy!"  
  
"Time... time... time..." Tara kept repeating.  
  
"Do the best you can," Buffy told her. She heard a grown from Giles, and rushed over, "I'm sorry."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"We should have stayed. If we had, none of this would have happened."  
  
"Don't. What you did ... w-was necessary ... what I've always admired."  
  
"Running away?"  
  
"Being able to place ... your heart ... above all else," he breathed heavily. It was obvious talking was taking a lot out of him, "I'm so proud of you. You've come so far. You're everything a Watcher ... everything I could have hoped for." He held his hand until he seemed to fall asleep, before pulling her hand carefully out of his grasp.  
  
"Willow," she said resolutely, looking at the witch, who was now stroking Tara's hair, who had somehow fallen asleep, "Open a door."  
  
Willow did as she said, and Buffy stepped outside the protective barrier, Angel watching from inside, holding Dawn, unable to help.  
  
"Speak," the guy who stepped forward ordered.  
  
"One of my friends was hurt when you attacked us."  
  
"And ten of my men are dead. Honorable men," he drew his sword, "Shall we balance the scale?"  
  
"Will you let someone come and help him or not?" Buffy asked, angrily.  
  
"Give quarter to an agent of the beast? What madness would move me to such action?"  
  
"I'm done asking." Buffy moved to hit the man, when Spike intervened, as the knights were preparing to fight back.  
  
"Hey now! I've been around a long, long time, and one thing I've learned is...this is war, right? In war, there are rules...or at least there was back in the day, if you are as honorable as you think you are. Plus, we have your General...guy."  
  
He nodded in assent.  
  
Buffy rounded up Willow towards the nearest pay phone. "Discharge, and bring life," Willow commanded, and the phone began to work. Buffy picked up the phone, and nodded her thanks to Willow.  
  
"Handier than a Swiss knife. Look, the door to my crypt's got this nasty squeak, maybe you could..." Spike started, but Willow rolled her eyes, turning and walking away.  
  
"Hey, uh, i-it's Buffy. I need to ask you a really big favor," Buffy said into the phone after the other end was picked up. 


	14. Part Fourteen

Divine Interference  
  
Part Fourteen: More than Freaky  
  
Posted: July 28, 2004  
  
Disclaimer": it's somewhere in the previous parts. Trust me.  
  
Author's notes: Damn! I think I got like...I don't even think I can count high enough to count all the reviews I've gotten since I last updated this story! Most are from Queen Boadicea, reviewing every few chapters, but there are others, so many others, and some from people who have, in my knowledge, never reviewed my stories before, and well...THANKS GUYS!!!  
  
This update is about 13 pages, unformatted, and well, I have about fifteen or sixteen more pages to get up, though that's a rough estimate. No, wait, 85-77= it's summer, I don't know! But there are that many pages left to get up here. The more reviews, the more I'll be willing to get it all up here! Just letting you know, lol!  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Out of Reality: Thanks for the compliment. More and more I'm seeing the word awesome, and it makes me feel all tingly inside! Thanks! As for your questions... I will tell you that I hate tragedies, so that idea is out, though I kinda like it....I already have the ending, and the epilogue typed up, it's just a matter of giving you guys time to digest things. Don't worry, I promise that the ending is more original than the idea!  
  
(There are just too many D stories....at least that I've written. Ever noticed that? I think I have a fixation with the letter D. Divine, Dark Years, Dark Times...I have a few untyped stories that start with D...TOO MANY D's!)  
  
Queen Boadicea (13): Oh, Spanky's being very useful. Just because Xander ain't around to pick on him, doesn't mean I don't have someone to take his place, lol....But yeah, he does get annoying when he's around Buffy. I liked him better evil, myself....better to write too, more of a challenge!  
  
Queen Boadicea (11): Lol, at this point, I'm not really sure what Tara knows or doesn't know. And I don't know what... superfluous, but if Angel isn't it, then I guess that's a good thing, lol.  
  
Queen Boadicea, yet again, lol(9): You know what, even though it's too late for it to happen in this story, give me some time, and I'll definitely have a story written like that! You are right too, to be left by Dru for a Fungus demon...tisk tisk. Oh, and I could bring Dru into it...I love writing that crazy girl! Starts to laugh her head off oh, sorry. Back to reviews, shall we?  
  
Queen Boadicea(8): yeah, I had that misconception, but I did change that part, because well...now that she's Buffy's daughter rather than her sister, I didn't think the wording was right. And the tense issue! It plagues my sleep! I was using scripts from , my first stop for anything episode wise for either Buffy or Angel, and at that point in time, I had major tense issues. I wasn't sure how to change one from the other and all that, but now I've licked it, I hope. If you find any more in this chapter, or the next one, please let me know! I try so hard to catch them, but I think that no matter what, they'll still bug me!  
  
I liked Dawn, mostly because she was my age, and still is, as far as I know, and she almost reminds me of, well...me at times. Bad, I know. She was a real brat, but I can almost understand why. Not that I've learned that I'm not really, my Mom's child, I've got her eighth grade pic to prove it (we look EXACTLY alike! Same face structure, same hair color, and we both wear thick glasses, it's scary!) but...yeah.  
  
Queen Boadicea(6): Ok, first off, I love reviews, but...lol. I'm not totally sure if Angel could tell that Glory wasn't all that she's cracked up to be. She is almost human, being in Ben's body and all...Angel doesn't realize that she's not human until Wes finds it out, I think. I'm having a hard time remembering my own story, but it's all in the past, so why worry?  
  
Queen Boadicea(4): You don't like my Gods? Lol. I'm sorry, I have this issue about loving to write higher powers and whatnot. I'm sorry it's confusing, but I hope that you've managed to figure out what's going on.  
  
Melanie: Lol, the reason why I'm staying very much to the season is because I'm using scripts from the season. Some things are very different, like Dawn doesn't talk, and Angel's there, but other than that...I'm trying to stay as focused as I can. I can tell you that no, Angel will not be going to Plyea. At least not any time soon. Maybe in the middle of the summer, but not now. Fred's a strong girl, she can rescue herself, lol. Seriously, Fred is one of my favorite characters, and I hadn't even thought about her and everything else going on in LA, but Angel has other obligations. As for Buffy dying...my lips are sealed!  
  
Melluvben: Well, that is one way, but that doesn't really cover that damn prophecy. They can't be together until that's taken care of! Pounds her head against wall SHIT! whistles innocently I like the idea, but no. I do have another way to sequel it, though, having to do with Dawn's blood, but I'll get more info to you after the end, so you guys can see what happens, and then decide...  
  
Ok, I think that's all the reviews. I want to thank everyone once more for reviewing! I almost thought I had died and gone to heaven when I logged on, and found ten reviews, all within a day old, and it happened twice!!! You guys have made me a VERY happy writer, and I hope to get another update of something else ASAP, so if you're reading Dark years, of Dark Times, be looking for them!  
  
THANKS!  
  
(START OF CHAPTER)  
  
The sun had set when a car pulled up to the gas station, and Ben stopped the car, looking fearfully at the knights, all in armor with weapons pointed his way. He took a deep breath, grabbing his medical bag, and got out of the car.  
  
Once he was let in, he went right to Giles's side. "You, uh, forgot to mention the costume party outside," he joked, starting to take a look at Giles's wound.  
  
"Sorry. I-I didn't know who else to call." Spike and Angel, both jealous, were in the back room, Angel holding a still sleeping Dawn.  
  
"No, it's okay. I mean, yeah, not ... how I pictured seeing you again, but, uh ... I'll take what I can get." Buffy knew that both Spike and Angel were listening, and the thought she heard an inaudible growl from Angel.  
  
"Thank you...for coming."  
  
"No problem." He looked past Buffy, and she turned to see Angel standing in the doorway, holding Dawn. Ben was staring at the sleeping child.  
  
"So, uh, how are your classes?" she asked, jolting him out of his thoughts.  
  
"Oh, uh, good," he nodded.  
  
AN: Ok, I just realized that because Joyce is not dead, Buffy would not know Ben. So she met him in the cafeteria, while she was still trying to juggle school and Dawn!  
  
Ben decided to do what he could for Giles, and Buffy left him to check on Dawn. When she came back, Ben had put a huge bandage on the wound, and was taking off a pair of surgical gloves.  
  
"All right, I think I got him stabilized, but there's a lot of damage. We need to get him out of here."  
  
"Well, I think the guys with the pointy swords kinda have other ideas."  
  
"Don't they always."  
  
"Look, I know this must seem extra "Outer Limits" to you."  
  
"This? Naah. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. You know, emergency room, full moon on a Saturday night." He saw Angel holding Dawn just on the other side of the door, "Is that your little girl?"  
  
"Yeah," Buffy actually smiled, though wan.  
  
"She looks dehydrated," he said, taking a step closer, to take a look at her, and Angel growled at him. "Father?"  
  
"Yes," Angel said in a no nonsense voice.  
  
"He's a doctor. Or nurse, or training. Just let him take a look," Buffy told him, and he begrudgingly let Ben touch her. "You know, if it gets too weird for you, just tell me, I'll understand."  
  
"Don't worry about me. I won't leave until I've worn out my welcome."  
  
"How soon can you go?" Angel mumbled. Buffy glared at him, taking Dawn from him.  
  
"Go...beat up Spike or something," Buffy shooed him off, "Sorry about him. He's over protective of Dawnie. And me."  
  
"I would be too," he flashed her a smile. Oh, God, he's flirting with me, she thought, but he's helping Giles. She smiled back, what she hoped was a genuine smile. Giles's labored breathing got louder, and Buffy frowned, going over to where he lay. She shifted Dawn a bit, and took Giles's hand.  
  
Angel entered the back room, void of lights, muttering. The doc guy was flirting with her, and it was really getting on his nerves. He was hoping that she would have let him back in by now, but now...  
  
He heard a click of a lighter, and a muffled "Ow." Not needing light, being perfectly suited for the dark, he saw Spike in a corner trying to light a cigarette with bandaged hands. Sometime between taking care of Giles, and keeping Tara out of trouble, Willow had wrapped rags around the cuts.  
  
I can't believe I'm doing this, Angel thought as he stalked towards Spike. Spike gave him a wary look, until Angel snatched the lighter out of his hands.  
  
Spike sighed, "Thanks."  
  
Angel flicked the lighter and held it up so Spike could light his cigarette, "If you take that near Buffy or Dawn, I will kill you." Angel closed the lighter and stuck it into his pocket. Spike nodded his consent. "Have I mentioned today how much I dislike you?"  
  
"A few times, yeah. Maybe not so much in words but...yeah."  
  
"How are your hands?"  
  
"Nothing compared to the little bits we're gonna get chopped into when the Renaissance Faire kicks the door in. And here we bloody sit."  
  
"It's not like we've got much of a choice."  
  
"Could make a break for it! Use General Armor-All as a shield, get to the doc's car, and-"  
  
"Great plan, Spike. And while all the hacking and slashing's going on, what are you gonna be doing, huh? Throwing migraines at 'em?"  
  
"Look, we stay here, we all die! At least this way, some of us might get-"  
  
"No." they both looked up to see Buffy standing there, sans the baby. Angel looked around franticly, to see Willow holding her. "We're all gonna make it. I'm not losing anyone. Check the supplies...see if anyone's hungry," she said, subdued.  
  
"Dissention in the ranks. Seldom a harbinger of glad tidings." The whatever was obviously awake.  
  
"Shut up," Buffy backhanded him, hard.  
  
"Poor frightened girl. You've no idea what you've gotten yourself into."  
  
"Why don't you tell me then?" she crossed her arms across her chest, cold from not holding Dawn close.  
  
"Would it make a difference?" he asked, "What do you know of the beast?"  
  
"Strong. Fast. Hellgod."  
  
"From a dimension of unspeakable torment."  
  
"A demon dimension. I know. She ruled with two other hellgods, right?" Angel moved closer to hear better. He stood beside Buffy, hoping to give her strength just by his presence.  
  
"Along with the beast they were a triumvirate of suffering and despair. Ruling with equal vengeance. But the beast's power grew beyond even what they could conceive. As did her lust for pain and misery. They looked upon her, what she had become ... and trembled."  
  
"A god afraid?" Buffy asked, now nervous.  
  
"Such was her power. They feared she would attempt to seize their dimension for herself, and decided to strike first. A great battle erupted. In the end, they stood victorious over the beast ... barely. She was cast out. Banished to this lower plane of existence, forced to live and eventually die trapped within the body of a mortal ... a newborn male, created as her prison. That is the beast's ... only weakness."  
  
"Kill the man ... and the god dies," Buffy deduced.  
  
"Unfortunately, the identity of the human vessel has never been discovered."  
  
"I don't understand. Now, I've seen Glory. Not a whole lot going on in the hairy chest department."  
  
"You have seen a glimpse of the true beast. Her power was too great to be completely contained. She's found a way to escape her mortal prison ... for brief periods, before her energies are exhausted and she's forced back ... into her living cell of meat and bone."  
  
"What about Dawn? The Key?" Angel clarified.  
  
"The key ... is almost as old as the beast itself. Where it came from, how it was created ... the deepest of mysteries. All that is certain is that its power is absolute. Countless generations of my people have sacrificed their lives in search of it, to destroy it before its wrath could be unleashed.  
  
"But the monks found it first," Buffy was checking her facts.  
  
"Yes, and hid it with their magicks."  
  
"Why didn't they just destroy it? If the key is as dangerous as-"  
  
"Because they were fools. They thought they could harness its power for the forces of light. They failed, and paid with their blood."  
  
"What does...what does she-it do? What was it created for?" Angel put his arm around Buffy's shoulders. He knew she was having a hard time comprehending the information, because he was in the same boat.  
  
"It-She was created ... to open the gates that separate dimensions. The beast will use her power ... to return home and seize control of the hell she was banished from."  
  
Buffy couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. The general looked at her in surprise. "That's it? That's Glory's master plan ... to go home?"  
  
"You misunderstand. Once the key is activated, it won't just open the gates to the beast's dimension. It's going to open all the gates. The walls separating realities will crumble. Dimensions will bleed into each other. Order will be overthrown and the universe will tumble into chaos ... all dark ... forever."  
  
Buffy took a deep, wavering breath. Angel put a hand under her arm, in case she collapsed. This was her daughter they were talking about, a child she gave birth to, carried around for nine months...  
  
"That ... is what she was created for," He finished.  
  
"I-I can't." Buffy stalked out of the room, finding another room, unoccupied.  
  
Angel looked in dismay at the General, and Spike, before trailing after her. "Buffy..."  
  
"Do you think it's true? What he said?" she was sitting on a table in the middle of the room.  
  
He sighed, and sat down next to her, taking her hands in his own, rubbing them for comfort, "I don't know."  
  
"Destroyer of the universe...every mother hopes her baby grows up to be something special... She doesn't even have to grow up," she sniffled. She placed her head on Angel's shoulder, "What are we going to do?" she whispered.  
  
"I won't let anything happen to her, I promise, Buffy. Or you. I love you both too much. I would die before letting anything happen to you." He wrapped his arms around her, and they sat there in silence for a while.  
  
In the back room, where the general was tied up, Willow was trying to feed Tara, while Spike took a moment to study the baby who was also the Key. He didn't see anything different about her, from other babies he had seen. Sure, she was still alive after crossing his path, but...  
  
"Wriggling!" Tara cried, upset.  
  
"Come on, baby, you have to eat something."  
  
"Ya want me to try?" Spike said awkwardly, coming up behind Willow.  
  
"I don't know, she doesn't know you very well...and I'm kinda getting used to picking fruit out of my hair."  
  
Ben was over by the sink, rinsing some gauze to be used again, once dried. It wasn't exactly sanitary, but... He would do the best he could.  
  
"You!" the general whispered, not wanting the attention of anyone but Ben, who stopped what he was doing, but didn't look at him. "You are not a part of this, are you?"  
  
"Just a friend of the family," he still wouldn't look at him.  
  
"Would you die for them?" this got Ben's attention, and he finally turned to look at the general in the eye. "Because that is what your future holds if you align yourself with the Slayer and her misguided people."  
  
"It's my life, and I'll do what I please with it."  
  
"It's not just your life. Unimaginable legions will perish, including everyone here. You can stop this. You can save all their lives by ending one. The little girl. The key. Destroy it, and the will of the beast will be broken, she will fade, a distant memory...and all of this madness will end."  
  
Ben just glared at him.  
  
Buffy was standing next to Giles later on, now holding Dawn when Ben came up behind her. She jumped.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Is...Is he gonna be ok?"  
  
"He was hurt pretty badly."  
  
"It's because of me," she muttered, "all my fault."  
  
"No it isn't." He walked around behind her to get something from his bag.  
  
"You don't know what's happening."  
  
"I don't have to." He rummaged around in his bag while talking, grabbing a syringe, and started filling it from a bottle, "I just know that sometimes terrible things happen to good people. It shouldn't, but ... it does." He flicked the needle to get the air out. "It's nobody's fault. It's just the way life is," he turned and gave Giles the shot. Buffy frowned in distaste. Anything that had to do with hospitals and doctors she didn't like.  
  
"Will that help?" Ben didn't answer, turning away from Buffy. "Ben?" he dropped the syringe, shattering it. He put a shaky hand to his forehead. Buffy stared at him, confused and scared. She hadn't yet put any of the pieces together.  
  
Ben ran into the main room, "Let me out! You have to let me out!"  
  
"Ben?" Buffy followed him.  
  
"You don't understand. I gotta get out, open a door, now!" Angel and Spike ran up behind Buffy.  
  
"What's going on?" Angel asked.  
  
"I-I don't know. He just freaked out."  
  
"Let me out!"  
  
"Will, open a door..." Angel said, perplexed. If he knew more of what had been happening, then he would have put things together, but he had been out of town too often.  
  
"NO! AH!" Ben brought up his hands as if to defend his head, but morphed into Glory in the process. She turned the movement into a leisurely stretch. Buffy stared in horror at the blonde, Angel coming up beside her, trying to block Dawn from her.  
  
"Well, well, well, little Ben finally did something right."  
  
"The Beast," The general said.  
  
"Hey, it's Gregor!" Glory cried. She grabbed a hubcap lying around, and threw it like a Frisbee. It hit the general, Gregor, in the chest. The body fell against the bonds, dead. "And now it's not."  
  
Spike rushed at her with a yell, Angel right behind. She batted Spike away like a rag doll, slamming both he and Angel against the wall. Tara looked panicked as Willow closed her eyes to do a spell.  
  
Buffy stood rooted on the spot, panicked. Glory rushed at her, grabbing Dawn from her embrace, and threw her at Willow, both hitting the closest wall.  
  
"Dawn!" Buffy screamed from her place on the floor. She pushed herself up and through the door, just in time for the barrier to close behind Glory and her daughter. She can't get past. "DAWN!" Buffy ran back inside, now limping slightly from some injury that had just registered, "Willow!" Willow looked at her, her eyes already black. Buffy ran back out as Willow started the releasing spell.  
  
The barrier went down, and Buffy looked around in horror. All the knights were dead, lying around like unwanted kindling. She slowly walked forward, not wanting to stare at the dead, but not being able to help it.  
  
Willow, Tara, Spike and Angel burst out of the building, even the vampires stopping at the scene of carnage.  
  
"We have to-" Willow started.  
  
Buffy was still walking slowly, traumatized. A body nearby croaked, "The Beast."  
  
Tara whimpered and hid her face in Willow's shoulders.  
  
"The car! Get the keys!" Spike cried, an idea. He ran off to find them as Angel moved towards Buffy.  
  
"Buffy! We have to find Dawn," Angel told her.  
  
"We can't let Glory-" Willow started. Buffy sank down to the ground.  
  
"Buffy?" Angel called, worried, "Buffy!" tears started streaming down her face. Angel crouched down beside her, "Buffy, please! Buffy!"  
  
"Buffy, you have to get up!" Willow cried.  
  
"Let's get her inside," Angel said, picking her up. He set her down in a chair. "Will, try to wake her up. Giles, how are you doing? Will you be alright to move in a bit?"  
  
"Don't worry about me, I'll be just-ow," he moved.  
  
"Better part of a century spent in delinquency just paid off," Spike bragged, "Hotwired Ben's auto. Who's for gettin' the hell out of here?"  
  
"You sure you're going to be ok?" Angel ignored him, talking to Giles.  
  
"Don't worry about me, how's Buffy?"  
  
"The same," Angel said, staring nervously at her, "Still."  
  
"It's been almost half an hour," Willow pointed out.  
  
"But she'll be alright, right? She's the slayer," Spike said.  
  
No one said anything for a moment, "Will, try it again," Angel ordered. He just seemed to have taken over the role of leader, and no one had made a fuss.  
  
"All right, but ... I'm not even sure she's, you know ... really in there."  
  
"Just try."  
  
She scooted down so she was directly in Buffy's face, "Can you hear me? Buffy! Buffy! Buffy?" she shook her head.  
  
"BUFFY!" Spike yelled at her, "She can't just be brain-dead. I mean ... she's still Buffy, somewhere in there, right?"  
  
"We're not gonna get Dawn back by sittin' around here," Giles mentioned.  
  
"You're not gonna get Dawn back any way you slice it, it's for Buffy to decide," Angel threw back at him.  
  
"Good, panic. That oughta help," Giles pushed himself up, grunting in pain.  
  
"We should move her. U-unless we shouldn't. Should we?" Willow asked, confused, "Couldn't that make it worse? I think I read that somewhere."  
  
"It's impossible to know for sure. Losing Dawn, after all that Buffy's been through ... I think it's pushed her too far into some sort of catatonia," Giles said, regaining some balance.  
  
"You don't need a diploma to see that. Snap her out of it," Spike said, moving towards her. He grabbed her shoulders, and started to shake her. "Buffy! Oi, rise and shine, love!"  
  
"Spike," Angel warned.  
  
"Come on, people. Girl's endowed with Slayer strength. It's hardly the time to get dainty. Buffy!"  
  
"We tried that!" Willow exclaimed. In response, Spike slapped Buffy hard across the face. No reaction whatsoever.  
  
"Ow!" he grabbed his head in pain, "Bloody hell!"  
  
"Well, we didn't try that..." Willow had to admit.  
  
"Are you insane?" Angel asked, pulling Spike away from Buffy, "We could be dealing with neurological damage here. You want to kill her?"  
  
"We have to do something. I can't just sit here watching. You waste time with kid gloves. I'm willing to wager, when all is said and done, Buffy likes it rough." Angel hauled back and punched Spike in the face. Spike returned the favor.  
  
"Separate," Willow said, looking at them with a stern expression. They two creatures of the night were pushed apart by something neither could see. They both looked in shock at Willow. She glared at them, "Buffy's out. Glory has Dawn. Sometime real soon, she's gonna use Dawn to tear down the barrier between every dimension there is. So if you two wanna fight, do it after the world ends, okay?" Angel glared at Spike, before moving over towards Buffy again.  
  
"All right. First we head back to Sunnydale. We'll get in touch with Xander and Anya. Xander will take Giles to a hospital. Anya will take care of Tara. Angel, Spike, you find Glory. Check her apartment; see if she's still there. Try anything stupid, like payback, and I will get Very Cranky. Everyone clear?  
  
"What are you going to do?" Angel asked.  
  
"I'll help Buffy." He nodded his agreement.  
  
"The world is spinning," Tar cried, "Straight to a new day! Big day. Big, big day."  
  
"Shh, shh." Willow soothed her, and Tara whimpered.  
  
"Uh ... Will?" Spike took a step forward, and Willow looked at him, "Now, uh, don't turn me into a horned toad for asking, but ... what if we come across Ben?" Angel nodded in agreement.  
  
"I-I don't think a doctor's what Buffy needs right now."  
  
"Well, yeah, especially not one who also happens to be Glory," everyone but Angel looked at him like he had three heads.  
  
"What do you mean?" Giles asked.  
  
"You know. Ben is Glory."  
  
"You mean ... Ben's with Glory?" Willow asked, trying to wrap her mind around the concept, ""With" in what sense? They're working together?"  
  
"No. No. Ben is Glory. Glory's Ben. They're one and the same."  
  
"When did all this happen?" Willow asked.  
  
"Not one hour ago! Right here, before your very eyes! Ben came, he turned into Glory, snatched the kid, and pfft! Vanished, remember?" he turned to Angel, "You do remember...?" Angel nodded. Willow and Giles looked at him like he was crazy, "Is everyone here very stoned? Ben! Glory! He's a doctor, she's the beast. Two entirely separate entities sharing one body. Like a bloody sitcom. Surely you remember."  
  
"So you're saying ...Ben and Glory...Have a connection," Willow pondered over the news.  
  
"Yes, obviously, but what kind?" Giles asked.  
  
"Oh, I get it. That's very crafty. Glory's worked the kind of mojo where anyone who sees her little presto-change-o instantly forgets. And yours truly, being somewhat other than human ... stands immune."  
  
"That must be it." Angel agreed.  
  
"So ... Ben and Glory ... are-are the same person?" Willow asked, "Glory can turn into Ben, and Ben turns back into Glory. And anyone who sees it instantly forgets."  
  
"Kewpie doll for the lady," Spike said sarcastically, pointing at Willow.  
  
"Excellent. Now. Do we suspect there may be some kind of connection between Ben and Glory?" Giles asked. Willow looked from him to Spike, with a questioning gaze. Spike and Angel both sighed loudly.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
"You sure you know what you're doing?" Anya asked. It was a few hours later, and she had come to help out. Willow was taking candles from her leather bag, and putting them on a table in Xander's apartment.  
  
"I think so. I don't know. It's ... not exactly well-explored territory, but ... I gotta try."  
  
"A spell like this could be really dangerous for Buffy. And you," Angel said from the doorway.  
  
"Time ... oh, time is coming."  
  
"What are you doing here?" Willow asked, going over to Tara, "shh, it's ok, I'm here."  
  
"Spike didn't want me tagging along. And as easily as I could have caught him, I wanted to help you."  
  
"You two will look after her while I'm..."  
  
"Sure. What do I do?" Anya asked. She glanced at Angel, "Oh, come on in already."  
  
"Mostly ... just ... be here for her. And, and there's some pills in my knapsack. Half of one every two hours keeps her ... pretty mellow."  
  
"Y-you think you'll be gone more than two hours?" Anya asked.  
  
"Wish me luck," Willow shrugged.  
  
"Okay," Anya reached over to give Willow a punch in the arm, with false cheer, and forced enthusiasm, "Good luck!"  
  
"Thanks," she turned to Tara, "Okay. Be good now, sweetie. I-I'll be back as soon as I can, okay? We're good?" Tara just stared at Willow while she talked to her, but didn't reply. Willow softly kissed her forehead, and turned away. Tara whined and held out her hand towards Willow.  
  
Willow took a deep breath, gathering up her things and walked towards Xander's closed bedroom door.  
  
"Good luck," Angel said softly, Anya copying him not a moment later.  
  
Willow entered the dark bedroom, closing the door behind her. She started setting up, putting a candle on the bedside table, and lit it. She put another on the other table, on the other side, and lit it. She then put two more candles on another small table, and lit them. While she did all this, the body of Buffy sat in a chair against the wall, motionless.  
  
Willow took another deep breath, sitting on the corner of the bed, to face Buffy. She seemed to go into a trance.  
  
Outside the bedroom, Angel stood with his ear to the door, trying to hear something. "A glass works much better for that, "Anya told him, "They're in the cupboard if you want one."  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
Willow was suddenly in an apartment. It seemed to be underground, with no natural lighting. She heard voices from the other room, and she started walking towards them, only to find that there weren't any real walls. She hid behind the couch to listen, peeking out to see what was going on.  
  
Angel and Buffy sat opposite each other at a small table in what seemed to be the kitchen.  
  
"Would you like some more?" Angel asked, holding a teakettle.  
  
"No thanks," Buffy said quietly.  
  
"I'm really sorry I kissed you like that."  
  
"You are?" Buffy asked, an unidentifiable emotion flashing over her face.  
  
"Well, not for the kiss itself..."  
  
"Good, I mean... as far as kisses go, I thought it was well above average."  
  
"It was incredible. I just - I-I think, maybe we'd be asking for trouble rushing back into things. Not that I don't want to - rush. Believe me, I do."  
  
"Right. You spoke to the Oracles and they said you were cured for good. But how do we know that they really speak for the Powers? I mean they could be - pranksters."  
  
"Or there could be another loophole."  
  
"Exactly. And then the two of us would be in even deeper and it's 'grr' all over again."  
  
"It would be smart to wait a while. See if this mortal thing takes," Angel agreed.  
  
Willow, from behind the couch, listened in confusion. What were they talking about?  
  
"Exactly. And even if it does, it's still complicated."  
  
"You're still the Slayer. And I'm not sure what I am now. I don't know what my purpose is. I can't just wedge myself into your life back in Sunnydale. It wouldn't be good for either of us. Not to mention the fact that you just started college. And what about slaying? I mean, if you had me to worry about, you might not be as focused."  
  
"Are you going to pull out a pie chart on me now? Because I get it, it's not necessary," Buffy said, sounding offended, but by what, Willow couldn't tell.  
  
Angel stood with a sigh, and moved to the chair beside her, "I'm not saying I don't want you. You know how much... I'm just saying it's worth the wait to be sure this is right. I need to be sure you won't get hurt again."  
  
Buffy stood up, and Willow could tell she was either offended or angry, "You know it's a good thing I didn't fantasize about you turning human only about 10 zillion times, because today would have been a real let down," she didn't look at him as she moved over next to the stove, and silence reigned for a moment, "So how does the mature plan go? You call me? I call you? What?"  
  
Angel stood as well, moving over to where she stood by the stove. "We stay in touch - just not..."  
  
"Literally. - Funny." They stared at each other a moment, before Buffy walks past him, "Okay, I'd better..."  
  
"Right. Remove the temptation."  
  
Buffy spun back towards him, "So, we'll - talk soon?" she put her hand on top of his on the counter. They both stared at the two hands for a moment. Angel grabbed her hand, then reached out and pulled her into a deep kiss. They stumbled back into the fridge, and Buffy jumped up to wrap her legs around his waist.  
  
Willow hid her eyes in shock. She really didn't need to be seeing this. She didn't understand what was going on.  
  
Angel picked her up and carried her over to the kitchen table. Willow heard the shatter of things being cleared off it, and hoped to God they weren't going to have sex right there.  
  
After a few seconds, he picked her up again, and still kissing, they walked past Willow's hiding place, and through the doors behind her, managing to close them.  
  
Willow stared at the doors in shock, wondering what the hell she was seeing.  
  
"That was when she was conceived." Willow jumped and spun, to see Buffy behind her, "A day that was never supposed to happen, a day turned back by the Powers themselves. Only Angel was supposed to remember. He didn't want it ruining my life. Now look what happened..." she looked down, not meeting Willow's questioning gaze.  
  
Suddenly Willow was in the same apartment, and Buffy, this time in a flowery dress, was pacing. Willow ducked behind what little barrier there was, as Angel came down the steps, defeated.  
  
"I'm guessing that expression isn't because they were all out of fresh OJ at the deli.-What happened?"  
  
"Nothing happened. - I just..."  
  
"Where have you been?"  
  
"I went to see the Oracles. I asked them to turn me back."  
  
"What?-Why?"  
  
"Because more then ever I know how much I love you."  
  
Buffy backed away from him, "No. No, you didn't."  
  
He followed her slowly, "And if I stayed mortal one of us would wind up dead, maybe both of us. You heard what Mohra said."  
  
"Mohra is dead. We killed him," Buffy pleaded  
  
"He said others would come."  
  
"And he was right," Willow jumped; another Buffy was standing next to her, but the same one as before. "They always come," she said, and it sounded eery, because the Buffy across the room said the same thing.  
  
"And they always will. But that's my problem now, not yours, remember?"  
  
"No, I won't just stand by and let you fight, maybe die, alone."  
  
"Then we fight together."  
  
"You saw what happened last night. If anything, I'm a liability to you. You take chances to protect me, and that's not just bad for you, it's bad for the people we were meant to help."  
  
"So what? You just took a whole 24 hours to weigh the ups and downs of being a regular Joe and decided it was more fun being a superhero?"  
  
"You know that's not it. How can we be together if the cost is your life, or the lives of others?" he took her into his arms, "I know. I couldn't tell you. I wasn't sure - if I could do it if I woke up with you one more morning."  
  
"I understand...so, what happens now?" the Buffy in Angel's arms asked.  
  
"But I really don't. None of this would have happened if he hadn't..." the Buffy beside Willow said.  
  
"The Oracles are giving us back the day, turning back time, so I can kill Mohra before his blood makes me mortal."  
  
"When?"  
  
"Another minute."  
  
Buffy started to cry, "A minute? No. No, it's not enough time!"  
  
"We don't have a choice. It's done." "How am I supposed to go on with my life knowing what we had? What we could have had?"  
  
"You won't. No one will know but me."  
  
"And yet I remember it. All. I relive it every time I hold her. Every time he leaves the room...I remember," the Buffy beside Willow murmured.  
  
"Everything we did!" the Buffy on the other side of the room cried, crying.  
  
"It never happened."  
  
Buffy shook her head, and so did the one across the room, "It did. It did. I know it did! I felt your heart beat."  
  
"Buffy..." he kissed her, and once he released her, she looked at the clock, Willow noticed the minute is almost up.  
  
"No! Oh God. It's not enough time." Angel sniffled, tears running down his face too, "Shh, please. Please." He gripped her tighter to him, crying. "Please, please."  
  
"No. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget," she repeated.  
  
There was a white flash, and Willow stood in the Magic Box. Buffy, now wearing a sleeveless blouse and a pale skirt carried a book over to a bookshelf. She put the book in its place, paused a moment, then turned away.  
  
Willow watched in confusion as this Buffy walked past her. She turned around to follow, and was standing around a fire, at night. "ooo-kay..."  
  
Buffy was sitting to her right, and across from Buffy stood a figure.  
  
"Hey ... I know you. You're, you're the first original Slayer who tried killing us all in our dreams." The First Slayer didn't look at Willow, just stared at Buffy, "How've you been?"  
  
"Death is your gift," it said.  
  
"Death is my gift?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Wait, death is her what?" Willow asked.  
  
"Death is your gift." Willow turned to look at Buffy, only to be in the Magic Box again. Once more, Sleeveless Blouse Buffy walked across, put a book in the bookcase, paused, and walked off.  
  
Willow looked on, confused. She saw something out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see Buffy, now wearing jeans and a black tank top walking down the hall in the Summer's house.  
  
"Where are you going?" Willow asked, confused, "I can't keep following you around like this, Buffy. We have to go." Tank top Buffy pushed the door open at the end of the hall, and continued walking. "You have to talk to..." Willow entered the room, realizing it's Joyce's room, with no furniture, "...me." Willow slowly walks around the room, looking at the graveyard plots on the floor. There was one for Jesse, though no body resided within, Jenny, Ford, and a couple of the kids at school. Each plot was complete with a sprinkling of leaves.  
  
Tank top Buffy stood, staring at the headstones.  
  
"I'm sorry," Willow said, thinking that was what she was supposed to say.  
  
"Don't be," Buffy's voice was deathly calm, "Death is my gift."  
  
"Yeah, I keep hearing that, but," Buffy started walking towards the door on the other side, "I'm not exactly sure what it means."  
  
"It's really not that complicated." Willow followed her through the door, and they were in the apartment, in Buffy's room. Dawn was lying on Buffy's bed, looking small and frail.  
  
"Not for you maybe."  
  
Buffy sat beside Dawn on her bed, "It's what I do." Willow looked at the child, who wasn't moving, but breathing shallowly, and seemed to be crying. "I mean, come on, you've known me ... for how long? It's what I'm here for. It's all I am." Buffy turned to look at her child, her face void of emotion. She picked up the pillow from next to the baby, stopping her from rolling of the bed, a thing they did when she was younger, and placed it over Dawn's head.  
  
"Buffy! Stop! No!" Buffy was extremely calm as she help the pillow in place, amid the kicking and screaming of the child underneath. "God, NO!"  
  
"What?" slowly, the baby stopped fighting, and its cries could barely be heard, "I keep telling you, Will. I-I figured it out. Death is my gift."  
  
The baby stopped moving, and Willow stared in horror at Buffy.  
  
Suddenly, Willow's back in the apartment, "Okay ... now this is weird."  
  
"Would you like some more?" Angel asked, holding a teakettle.  
  
"No thanks," Buffy said quietly.  
  
"I'm really sorry I kissed you like that."  
  
"You are?"  
  
"Well, not for the kiss itself..."  
  
"Good, I mean... as far as kisses go, I thought it was well above average."  
  
"It was incredible. I just - I-I think, maybe we'd be asking for trouble rushing back into things. Not that I don't want to - rush. Believe me, I do."  
  
"Right. You spoke to the Oracles and they said you were cured for good. But how do we know that they really speak for the Powers? I mean they could be - pranksters."  
  
"Or there could be another loophole."  
  
"Exactly. And then the two of us would be in even deeper and it's 'grr' all over again."  
  
"It would be smart to wait a while. See if this mortal thing takes," Angel agreed.  
  
Willow, from behind the couch, listened once more. She was close to figuring it out, but she had no clue what was going on.  
  
"Exactly. And even if it does, it's still complicated."  
  
"You're still the Slayer. And I'm not sure what I am now. I don't know what my purpose is. I can't just wedge myself into your life back in Sunnydale. It wouldn't be good for either of us. Not to mention the fact that you just started college. And what about slaying? I mean, if you had me to worry about, you might not be as focused."  
  
"Are you going to pull out a pie chart on me now? Because I get it, it's not necessary," Buffy said.  
  
Angel stood with a sigh, and moved to the chair beside her, "I'm not saying I don't want you. You know how much... I'm just saying it's worth the wait to be sure this is right. I need to be sure you won't get hurt again."  
  
Buffy stood up, "You know it's a good thing I didn't fantasize about you turning human only about 10 zillion times, because today would have been a real let down. - So how does the mature plan go? You call me? I call you? What?"  
  
Angel stood as well, moving over to where she stood by the stove. "We stay in touch - just not..."  
  
"Literally. - Funny." They stared at each other a moment, before Buffy walks past him, "Okay, I'd better..."  
  
"Right. Remove the temptation."  
  
Buffy spun back towards him, "So, we'll - talk soon?" she put her hand on top of his on the counter. They both stared at the two hands for a moment. Angel grabbed her hand, then reached out and pulled her into a deep kiss. They stumbled back into the fridge, and Buffy jumped up to wrap her legs around his waist.  
  
Willow hid her eyes in shock, even if this was the second time she had seen it. She still didn't need to see her best friend like this.  
  
Angel picked her up and carried her over to the kitchen table. Willow heard the shatter of things being cleared off it again.  
  
After a few seconds, he picked her up again, and still kissing, they walked past Willow's hiding place, and through the doors behind her.  
  
Then Willow was in the Summer's hall again, with Buffy not to far ahead, "Buffy, will you just stop a second and listen to me? Buffy!" Willow rushed ahead of Buffy, trying to stop her, "you have to stop doing this."  
  
"Doing what?"  
  
"Killing Dawn."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because this isn't what happened."  
  
"Will, I did this."  
  
"In your imagination! None of this is real! You're stuck in some loop."  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about. Excuse me."  
  
"Buffy, why are you doing this?" She followed her into the room full of graves. "Leave Dawn alone! What is this?"  
  
"My gift. This is what I do."  
  
"I'm not talking about this, I'm talking about..."Willow follows impatiently through the door, but instead of being in the apartment, she's in the Magic Box, now with two Buffies. "This..."  
  
The Buffy in the blouse walked over to the bookshelf again, carrying a book. She put it on the shelf, and paused.  
  
"Right here, it happened. I know it's something small, but..." time seemed to reverse, and Blouse Buffy placed the book back on the shelf. "It's something. What?"  
  
"Don't go there, Will," Tank Top Buffy said.  
  
"I'm not! You're the one who keeps dragging me back here! A-and you wouldn't be doing that if you weren't trying to show me something."  
  
"Do I?"  
  
"Buffy, come on. I-it's your brain. Just tell me." Blouse Buffy put the book back again. "What happened here?"  
  
It wasn't the Buffy wearing the tank top that spoke, like she was expecting, "This was when I quit, Will."  
  
"You did?"  
  
"Just for a second," Tank Top Buffy spoke this time.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
"I can't stand this anymore," Angel said impatiently, heading towards the bedroom door.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Anya cried.  
  
"I'm helping!"  
  
"What if you kill both of them!?"  
  
"I won't." But he wasn't too sure. He silently pulled the door open, and slipped into the room, ignoring Anya's angered mutterings. He sat on the bed, without moving Willow, and took her hand.  
  
He appeared in the magic shop, behind Willow, and a Buffy wearing jeans and a black tank top. At one of the side bookcases, a Buffy wearing a blouse and skirt stood.  
  
"What happened here?" Willow asked.  
  
"This was when I quit, Will," the Buffy wearing a skirt said.  
  
"You did?" Willow asked.  
  
"Just for a second," Tank Top Buffy spoke this time.  
  
"I remember. I was in the magic shop," Blouse Buffy said. "I put a book back for Giles," Tank Top Buffy said. "Nothing special about it. And then it hit me," Blouse Buffy continued. Angel watched in confusion.  
  
"What hit you?" Willow prodded.  
  
"I can't beat Glory." Tank top Buffy said. "Glory's going to win."  
  
"You can't know that," Willow said to the Buffy beside her.  
  
"I didn't just know it." Tank top Buffy said. "I felt it. Glory will beat me." Blouse Buffy stared off into space. "And in that second of knowing it, Will..." Tank Top Buffy looked away, not meeting anyone's gaze, not that it was hard. "I wanted it to happen." Blouse Buffy said.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I wanted it over. This is ... all of this ... it's too much for me." Blouse Buffy said, gazing around, still not noticing Angel. "I just wanted it over." Tank Top Buffy said, "If Glory wins ... then Dawn dies." Blouse Buffy said. "And I would grieve. People would feel sorry for me. But it would be over. And I imagined what a relief it would be." Blouse Buffy looked at her feet. "I killed Dawn." Tank Top Buffy whispered from beside Willow.  
  
Angel was about to make his presence known, when Willow spoke up, "Is that what you think?!"  
  
"My thinking made it happen." Tank Top Buffy answered. "Some part of me wanted it. And in the moment Glory took Dawn..." Blouse Buffy took over. Angel thought it was worse than watching twins. "I know I could have done something better. But I didn't. I was off by some fraction of a second." Tank top Buffy said. "And this is why..." Blouse Buffy said, "...I killed my child."  
  
"I think Spike was right back at the gas station," Willow muttered, "Snap out of it!" Both Buffies turned to stare at her.  
  
"What?" they said as one. More than freaky.  
  
"All this ... it has a name. It's called guilt. It's a feeling, and it's important. But it's not more than that, Buffy. Buffyies. You've carried the weight of the world on your shoulders since high school. And I, I know you didn't ask for this, but ... you do it every day. And so, you wanted out for one second. So what?"  
  
"I got Dawn killed."  
  
"Dawn isn't dead!" Angel said from where he stood, by the door.  
  
"Hello! Your daughter, not dead yet!" Willow stared in shock at Angel for a minute, "But she will be if you stay locked inside here and never come back to us."  
  
"But what if I can't?" Tank Top Buffy asked.  
  
"Then I guess you're right. You killed your daughter." Willow turned to leave the Magic Box, glaring at Angel in surprise and confusion.  
  
"WAIT!' Tank Top Buffy called, spinning around, "Where are you going?"  
  
"Where you're needed," Willow retorted, "Are you coming?"  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
Willow breathed a sigh as she reentered her body; Angel did likewise, though the breath was unneeded. Across from them, Buffy started to come to, sitting up straighter, looking around, breathing heavily, while Willow and Angel just watched her.  
  
Then Buffy burst into tears.  
  
Though Angel's first instincts were to go to her, he let Willow wrap her arms around Buffy as she cried. After awhile, Willow motioned him over, and he held both women as tears of his own trickled silently down his face. 


	15. Part Fifteen

Divine Interference  
  
Part Fifteen: Live  
  
Posted: August 2, 2004  
  
Disclaimer: see the first couple chapters, it's there somewhere.  
  
Author's notes: Well, I promised you a totally original ending, didn't I? It's finally here! All your long months of waiting and grousing, and wondering finally paid off! I want to thank all of my reviewers for reviewing, and all you readers that hide in the shadows; it's a tough job being a fanfic writer without you guys!  
  
But wait! There's still an epilogue yet to come! Hopefully the suspense won't kill you, because I need you guys to go read my other fics! I'm sorry if I miss a review response, yahoo is being a bitch, and I haven't been able to check mail in a couple days like I normally do. And if anyone knows the creator of that damned "Cannot Find Server" page, could you give me their address? I want to put them out of my misery.  
  
Reader Responses:  
  
Out-of-reality: Ok, think I've responded to this one before, but no more waiting. Yes, that silly glowey orb will be in here. As for deaths...I've learned a British expression: Mum's the word. Seriously love the Internet, where else would I learn cool phrases? I have a British friend at school, but he just swears a lot, and I already know those words.  
  
As for your chapter 14 review: Yes, when they were at the gas station, Xander and Anya were hiding out somewhere safe, doing God knows what. Well, knowing Anya....Nope, not even going to touch it with a ten foot pole.  
  
Queen Boadicea: Oh, no insult taken! Compared to the reviews I get from some of my BeeGee stories, that was icing on the cake! And I don't know about the regular members getting old thing, cuz, you know, they started with a 241-year-old vampire. Can't get much older...except for older vampires....Oh well, I still think Giles/Anthony's hot, and this is coming from a 16 year old, lol! Once I put it like that, that's kinda gross....  
  
Melanie: No more waiting! We can all cheer! Except for waiting for the epilogue, but that's just icing, we've already used that analogy. Ok, how about...it's just...Rain on your...no that's a song...the epilogue just ties things together. No big deal, it's barely a page!  
  
Melluvben: do you mean during the actual episode, or instead of Willow in this? I think I kinda like Willow going, she gets to learn things about her best friend she wouldn't otherwise.  
  
AND HERE IT IS! THE EVENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! THE DODGE SUMMER BLOWOUT EVENT!  
  
Oh, wait, that's a commercial...Here's the story, I promise:  
  
(START OF CHAPTER)  
  
Giles, released from the hospital, stood behind the register, making tea as Buffy, Willow, Angel, Anya and Tara entered the shop.  
  
"Buffy?" Giles looked up, "She's back," he said to the others.  
  
"You ok?" Xander asked, jumping up from his spot sitting at the table near Spike, but not next to him.  
  
"Yeah, I'm ok," Buffy sighed,. "Hear you found the ritual text."  
  
"Uh, something like that, yes." Giles said.  
  
"Uh, Did you know that Ben is Glory?" Xander asked.  
  
"So I'm told. What do we know?"  
  
"Um ... well, uh ..." Willow, Tara and Anya skirt Buffy and Angel, and sit down at the table. "...According to these scrolls, uh, it's possible for Glory to be stopped." Buffy raises an eyebrow, telling him to go on, "I-I'm afraid it's, um ... well, Buffy, I've read these things very carefully and there's not much ... margin for error. You understand what I'm saying?"  
  
"Might help if you actually said it."  
  
Giles gave her a small slime, and a nod. He set his mug down on the table, and removed his glasses. "Um ... Glory ... plans to open a ... dimensional portal ... by way of a ritual bloodletting."  
  
"Dawn's blood."  
  
"Yes. Once the blood is shed at a certain time and place ... the fabric which separates all realities will ... be ripped apart. Dimensions will ... pour into one another, uh, with no barriers to stop them. Reality as we know it will be destroyed, and ... chaos will reign on earth.  
  
"So how do we stop it?"  
  
"The portal will only close once the blood is stopped ... and the only way for that to happen is, um ..." Giles looked Buffy straight in the eye, "Buffy, the only way is to kill Dawn."  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
A vampire chased a kid into the alleyway beside the Magic Box, Bufy went out and dealt with it.  
  
"Been awhile since I met one who didn't know me." She sighed, "You should get home." She told the kid.  
  
"H-how'd you do that?"  
  
"That's what I do."  
  
"But you-you're just a girl."  
  
"That's what I keep saying," she sighed, reentering the magic shop. The gang is all around the table, researching. Spike was sitting on the ladder, smoking. Angel growled as she came in. Spike sighed, and put out the cigarette, saving it for later.  
  
"Anything?" she asked.  
  
"Nothing you want to hear. The ritual is, ah-"  
  
"Explain it again."  
  
"There's nothing new-"  
  
"Go through it again."  
  
"The key was ... living energy. It needed to be channeled, poured into a specific place at a specific time. The energy ... would flow into that spot, the walls between the dimensions break down. It stops, the energy's used up, the walls come back up. Glory uses that time to get back into her own dimension, not caring that all manner of hell will be unleashed on earth in the meantime."  
  
"Um, but only for a little while, right? The walls come back up, uh, n-no more hell?" Anya asked, nervous.  
  
"That's only if the energy is stopped. And now the key is human...is Dawn," Willow said sadly.  
  
Giles picked up the book he had been reading from, "The blood flows, the gates will open. The gates will close when it flows no more. When Dawn is dead."  
  
"I have places to be!" Tara suddenly yelled.  
  
"Why blood? Why Dawn's blood? I mean, why couldn't it be like a, a lymph ritual?"  
  
"Cause it's always got to be blood," Spike drawled.  
  
"We're not actually discussing dinner right now," Xander said sarcasticly.  
  
"Spike's right. Blood is life. That's why vampires eat it. Blood is what keeps you going, makes you warm, makes you hard, makes you other than dead," Angel sighed, closing his eyes in pain, "'Course it's blood."  
  
"Pretty simple math here. We stop Glory before she can start the ritual. We still have a couple of hours, right?" Buffy asked.  
  
"If my calculations are right. But Buffy-"  
  
"I don't want to hear it," she moved away from him.  
  
"I understand that-"  
  
"No! No, you don't understand. We are not talking about this."  
  
Giles jumped up from the table, dropping the book on his lap to the floor, starting everyone, "Yes, we bloody well are!" he yelled. He then took a deep breath, and continued, "If Glory begins the ritual ... if we can't stop her..."  
  
"Come on. Say it. We're bloody well talking about this. Tell me to kill my daughter."  
  
"She's not your daughter."  
  
"Oh, funny. I certainly remember the pain I went through. I remember the moment she was conceived. I remember holding her for the first time, marveling at the wonder that was my child. But she's more than that. The monks made her out of me. I hold her...and I feel closer to her than... Dawn ... is a part of me. I-" she shook her head, squeezing her eyes tight, willing herself not to cry.  
  
"We'll solve this. We will. Don't have another coma, okay?" Willow asked, and she was rewarded by a wan smile from Buffy.  
  
"If the ritual starts, then every living creature in this and every other dimension imaginable will suffer unbearable torment and death...including Dawn," Giles continued.  
  
"Then the last thing she'll see is me protecting her. That's what mothers do, protect their children."  
  
"You'll fail. You'll die. We all will." He turned away from her, and the once teens that had become family to him.  
  
"I'm sorry," Buffy whispered, "I love you all ... but I'm sorry." Silence reigned in the shop for a couple seconds, as everyone mulled over their fate. The person they had always counted on to save them was turning her back on them, but with good cause, and everyone understood.  
  
"Okay. All in favor of stopping Glory before the ritual. Suggestions, ideas? Time's a-wastin'," Anya said loudly startling everyone once more.  
  
"Uh ... when you say you love us all..." Spike started.  
  
"Shut up," all the males in the room besides Spike said simultaneously.  
  
"Willow. I bet you've got some dark spell a-brewin'. Uh, make her a, a, a toad? Little hoppy toad, we can hit her with a hammer?  
  
"Hoppy toad," Tara giggled.  
  
"What about Ben? He can be killed, right? I mean, I know he's an innocent, but, you know, not like Dawn innocent. We could kill a ... regular guy." Everyone was silent, considering the idea, and Xander realized what he had just said, "God," he murmured in self-disgust.  
  
"If it was his life or Dawn's, I'd kill him. Soul or no," Angel spoke up, and nobody thought anything of it. Everyone knew of his undying love for his child.  
  
"It's, ah, doubtful he'll surface again this close to the ritual. We can expect its Glory we're dealing with," Giles said. Angel looked at the floor, almost in defeat. The odds were just so high.  
  
"We don't have to kill her. Uh, we just have to stop her from doing the ritual. I mean, there's only the one time that she can do it, right?" Willow asked, and everyone looked t her, Buffy with a light of thanks in her eyes.  
  
"Yeah. We get her on the ropes, we just gotta keep her occupied till it's too late," Spike agreed.  
  
"Okay. But I'm still not hearing enough ideas. She's a god. Let's think outside the box," Anya encouraged.  
  
"Why don't you go think outside the bleeding box?" Spike threw at her.  
  
"Yes, Anya, apart from your incredibly uninfectious enthusiasm, have you anything else to contribu-"  
  
"The Dagon sphere!" Anya interrupted.  
  
"Sorry?"  
  
"When Buffy first met Glory, she found that magical...glowy sphere that was meant to repel Glory. We've got it in the basement. It might drive her away or hurt her. Ooh!" Anya had another great idea, rushing over to a display case. She did a Vana White, "And Olaf the troll god's enchanted hammer. You wanna fight a god, use the weapon of a god." Buffy walked over to get a better look at the hammer.  
  
"Uh, nah, that thing's too heavy to-" Spike began, but Buffy picked it up with one hand, "Yeah. Good."  
  
"I like this. Thanks."  
  
"Here to help. Wanna live," Anya replied.  
  
"Smart chicks are soooo hot," Xander said, looking fondly at Anya.  
  
"You couldn't have figured that out in tenth grade?" Willow asked him teasingly. They exchanged a smile of friendship.  
  
"Well, we have some ideas, if we could actually get Glory on the run, but, um..."  
  
"But, we still have no idea how to find her," Buffy said, sounding deflated once more. Angel walked over to her and started rubbing her arms.  
  
"Big day. Oh, it calls me! I have to be there!" Everyone looked at Tara, then to Buffy, "Big day!"  
  
"We can work this," Buffy mumbled, and only Angel heard her.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
Buffy and Angel were in the workout room, Angel holding the bag, while Buffy alternated hands, hitting a steady staccato against the bag.  
  
"Are you sure you're not going to tire yourself out?" Giles asked, coming into the room. When Buffy had slipped off during research, he knew exactly where she was going, and why.  
  
"I'm sure," Buffy said, stopping punching for about a minute, before starting the beat the bag once more.  
  
"We're, ah, still looking for ideas. Time's short, but, ah, best leave it to the last minute," Buffy stopped punching and stretched her arms and back, "If we go in too early, and she takes us out, no chance of getting her to miss her window," he said quietly.  
  
"Then we wait," Buffy's voice was hard, and though someone else might think she was angry, Angel knew she had closed herself off, so she couldn't feel, wouldn't feel, then she wouldn't break down. Buffy threw one last good punch, sending Angel and the bag halfway across the room. Angel dropped it to the floor as soon as he had stopped his movement backwards.  
  
"I bet you hate me right about now," Giles sighed, taking off his glasses. Buffy looked at the bag, not saying anything. "I love Dawn."  
  
"I know."  
  
"But I've sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means saying and doing things...what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to."  
  
Buffy spun to face him, "If you try and hurt her, you know I'll stop you."  
  
"I know."  
  
Buffy slowly walked past Angel and sat on the couch by the wall. Giles went to sit next to her, and Angel slipped out of the room. "This is...what? How many apocalypses for us now?"  
  
"Uh, well...six, at least. Feels like a hundred."  
  
"I've always stopped them, always won."  
  
"Yes.  
  
"I sacrificed Angel to save the world. I loved him so much. But I knew...what was right, and that was the right thing to do. I don't have that anymore, Giles. I don't understand. I don't know how to live in a world where these are the choices. If everything just gets stripped away. I just wish that...I wish I could be holding her right now," she held back her tears, "I wish it was all over, and I was hold her right now."  
  
She stood and composed herself, before turning to Giles. "The spirit guide...it told me that death is my gift. Guess that means a slayer is just a killer after all, huh?"  
  
"I think you're wrong about that."  
  
"It doesn't really matter now. If Dawn dies, I'm through. I've tried to quit in the past, and somehow I always got dragged back in. But this final. If I lose her, I quit," she looked down at her feet for a moment, then into his eyes, and he knew she was dead serious. Then she turned her back on him and walked out of the room, leaving him to mull over this thoughts.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
Giles walked over to the basement door to check on Xander and Anya.  
  
"Any luck? Have you found the Dagon Sphere?" he heard a rustling from below.  
  
"Um, I'm sure it's here, just be a minute!"  
  
"Yeah, we're on it! Let's look over here, where we didn't look yet." Giles shook his head and went back to see if he could find another book to go through.  
  
"Will, what do you got for me?" Buffy asked, sitting down on the stairs.  
  
"Some ideas. Well, notion, or theories based on wild speculations. Did I mention I'm not good under pressure?"  
  
"I need you, will. You're my big gun."  
  
"I'm your - no, I-I was never a gun. Someone else should be the gun. I, I could be a, a cudgel. Or, or a pointy stick."  
  
"You're the strongest person here. You know that, right?"  
  
"Well ... no."  
  
"Will, you're the only person that's ever hurt Glory. At all. You're my best shot at getting her on the ropes, so don't get a jelly belly on me now."  
  
"Well ... I, I ... do sort of have this one idea. But, last few days, I've mostly been looking into ways to help Tara. I-I know that shouldn't be my priority..."  
  
"Of course it should."  
  
Willow smiled at her, "Well, I've been charting their essences. Mapping out. I think ... if I can get close enough, I may be able to reverse what Glory did. Like, take back what she took from Tara. It might weaken Glory, or ... make her less coherent. Or it might make all our heads explode."  
  
"Buffy," Giles called from the counter.  
  
"I'll try to work on it," Willow promised as Buffy got up.  
  
Angel walked in to hear Buffy talking to Giles, "No, no that could be pivotal. Thank you guys."  
  
"Well, um, you're gonna need some-"  
  
"Way ahead of you," Buffy interrupted, and Angel was left in the dark. "We have time?"  
  
"Yes, if you hurry."  
  
"Ok, I'll go grab some weapons and things."  
  
"I'm looking for a big broadsword, myself," Xander mused.  
  
"Don't be swinging that thing near me!" Spike protested, coming up from behind.  
  
"Hey, I happen to be a-"  
  
"Glorified brick layer?"  
  
"I'm also a swell bowl," Xander protested.  
  
"Who do they remind you of?" Buffy asked Angel quietly as he came to stand beside her. She gave him a pointed look.  
  
"He has his own shoes," Anya tried to help.  
  
"Gunn got lost on the way, and Cordy's being no help. I'm going to go find them." Buffy nodded.  
  
"The gods themselves do tremble," Spike said sarcastically.  
  
"Spike, Shut your mouth. Come with me." She handed the sphere back to Giles and stalked off. Spike looked surprised for a moment, then followed.  
  
They walked in silence to her house. "The weapons are in the chest by the TV, I'll get the stuff upstairs," she told him, heading upstairs.  
  
"Uh, Buffy?" Spike still stood on the porch. Buffy turned back to him, waiting. He gave her a little wave. She just stared at him, "If you wanna just hand them over the threshold..."  
  
"Come in, Spike."  
  
"Hm...presto, no barrier," he walked over towards the chest, "Um, won't bother with the small stuff. Couple of good axes should hold off Glory's mates while you take on the lady herself."  
  
"We're not all gonna make it. You know that."  
  
"Yeah. Hey. Always knew I'd go down fightin'"  
  
"I'm counting on you ... to protect her."  
  
"Till the end of the world. Even if that happens to be tonight."  
  
"And if anything happens to me...Help Angel with her. Take care of him, for me." He didn't look happy about it, but he nodded, "I'll just be a minute."  
  
"Yeah," he turned back to the chest, "I know you'll never love me, I know that I'm a monster. But you treat me like a man. And that's..." Buffy stared at him, waiting, "Get your stuff, I'll be here." She turned and went upstairs.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
"We on schedule?" Buffy asked as she and Spike entered the shop.  
  
"Yes, it's time," Giles told her.  
  
"What about Angel?" Anya asked. He still hadn't returned.  
  
"He'll find me," Buffy turned to willow, "Will?"  
  
Willow nodded, going over to where Tara was looking into a display case, "Tara, baby? Is there somewhere you should be?"  
  
Tara glared at Buffy, "They held me down."  
  
"No one's holding you now. It's the big day, right?" Tara looked at Buffy, and Willow did as well, "Don't you wanna go?"  
  
Tara looked at Buffy and Willow anxiously for a moment, before getting up and crossing the shop, while the rest of the gang made final preparations. "You're a killer," Tara said, pointing to Giles. Both he and Spike looked at her in surprise, "This is all set down." Then Tara continued on her way out.  
  
"Stay close, but don't crowd. We'll follow in a minute," Buffy said to Willow, who nodded and followed her girlfriend out. She stopped when Buffy started addressing everyone, "Everyone knows their jobs. Remember, the ritual starts, and we all die. I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn." She turned and started after Willow and Tara.  
  
Giles and Spike stood by the weapons bag, Giles holding his side.  
  
"Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day speech, was it?" Spike asked.  
  
"We few..." Giles walked past Spike as Spike grabbed the weapons bag, "we happy few."  
  
"We band of buggered." Spike finished.  
  
They all followed Tara silently, all intent on their specified jobs. All wanted to live, even Spike.  
  
Tara came around a corner, stopping to gaze upward, before continuing. When the gang came around the corner, everyone stared up at the massive tower.  
  
"Shpadoinkle," Xander said, impressed.  
  
"What is that?" Anya asked.  
  
"The portal must open up there," Giles reasoned.  
  
Buffy didn't seem phased by the tower. She was intent on getting her baby back, "Will, you're up."  
  
"Need anything?" Giles asked.  
  
"Could use a little courage," Willow told him. Spike held out a flask, "The real kind," Spike looked at her, "But thanks," he nodded and put the flask away.  
  
Tara went through the fence, finally getting the cast off that she had been playing with the whole time. Before getting very far, Glory grabbed her, "You. What are you doing here?"  
  
"She's with me," Willow said, grabbing both Tara and Glory's head. All three began to scream as blue lightning flickered around them. A blue stream of light passed from Glory's head to Tara's. A blast of power separated them, sending Willow and Tara in one direction, Glory in the other.  
  
"What the frickin' hell did that bitch do to me?" Glory asked, as her minions helped her up form the concrete.  
  
"You look fine, truly!"  
  
"She made a little ... she made a hole. Uh, I need a brain to eat," Glory said, holding her head.  
  
"Oh, take mine, oh groove-tastic one!" a minion bowed, offering his head.  
  
"I said a brain, you worthless dirt!" Glory cried, pushing him away. "Big day. Got places to be. Need a brain." She looked up in front of her, seeing Buffy, "Suppose I could always use yours."  
  
"Okay then. Come and get it," she stood with her hands clasped behind her back and her head tilted to the side. They stood there for a moment, "You don't seem very well," Buffy noticed innocently.  
  
"Your little witch bitch ... gave me kind of a headache there." She threw away the ceremonial robe, only to be wearing a black dress underneath, "But if you think this is gonna last more than eight seconds-"  
  
"I noticed you're talking, whereas in your position, I would attack me."  
  
Glory stood there a moment, looking weak.  
  
"Oh, most sweaty-naughty-feelings-causing one, should we..." a minion started.  
  
"Go guard the girl. This is a ... this is a, a..." Glory tried to remember.  
  
"Diversionary tactic?"  
  
"Go guard!" he scurried away.  
  
"Huh, funny, you're not as blurry with speed as usual either."  
  
"The witch..." Glory started.  
  
"It's not her," Buffy pulled her hands from behind her back, holding the sphere. "Might be this, though," she smiled in satisfaction at Glory's worried look, "I heard it's supposed to repel you. So my guess is ... you probably shouldn't touch it, either." She threw the Dagon sphere at the god, who caught it instinctively. The sphere lit up when it touched Glory, warping the air around her. She made a pained face, dropping her hand. Slowly, painfully, she crushed the sphere, and the light slowly went out.  
  
"You're gonna wish you-" Buffy was right there and punched her in the face. Glory stumbled back as Buffy kicked her, then punched her three of four times more.  
  
"Stand fast! Kill anyone who dares approach! This will be our day of glory!" Buffy heard a minion yell. Nice pun, she thought, but you've got it all wrong. She heard a twang of a crossbow, and knew Spike had shot someone. No cries of pain, so it was a minion. Then she heard Willow and Tara getting reacquainted as her fists got acquainted with Glory's face.  
  
"You know what?" Glory stood up, "I'm feeling a little better. And now? I'm a little bored."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry. Cause you're about-" Glory kicked the head off of the robot.  
  
"Hey, wow, the Slayer's a robot. Did everybody know the slayer was a robot?" Glory smiled, not seeing Buffy behind her. The real Buffy this time.  
  
"Oh Glory..." She turned and Buffy hit her with the hammer. She flew across the room, hitting a wall, and going right through it. "You're not the brightest god in the heavens, are you?" Then Buffy heard a scream. A scream she knew well. "Dawn," she breathed, rushing towards the tower. She jumped over a pile of bricks and scrambled onto the stairs.  
  
"Oh no you don't!" Glory said, catching up with her. Buffy was about halfway up the tower when Glory caught her. She punched Buffy, who stumbled back. Buffy slammed Glory with the hammer, then Glory kicked her into the scaffolding. They hit each other a few more times before Buffy lost a grip on her hammer. It got caught in a piece of chain hanging off the tower. Glory grabbed another piece of chain, using it to swing over to the other side, and punch Buffy as she tried to grab the hammer. She fell to the side, before getting up and getting kicked by Glory. She stepped back then hit Glory a few more times.  
  
Once she was out of her way, she tried once more to reach her screaming child. Glory hit her just below the knee as she tried to climb the ladders, the stairs having stopped, and she gasped in pain. She thought it might be broken, even. She swung around to the outside of the scaffolding and tried to climb that way, but Glory was right there to stop her.  
  
After about five minutes of not making any ground, Buffy managed to grab her hammer, hitting both Glory and a ladder, which went flying. Glory kicked Buffy off the scaffolding, but Buffy grabbed her at the last second, and they both plummeted to the earth.  
  
When Buffy was able to get up from her fall, she was closer to Glory than her hammer.  
  
"You lost your hammer, sweet cheeks. What are you gonna hit me with now?" Glory taunted, standing beside a concrete wall. Buffy looked at the wall, and Glory turned to look as well as a wrecking ball came though and hit her. It crashed through a second wall nearby, leaving Glory on the other side.  
  
"Whatever's handy," Buffy quipped. Buffy grabbed the hammer on her way by to get to Glory.  
  
Angel and his gang finally showed up in time to see Glroy go flying via the wrecking ball. He stood next to Willow, looking around, "Isn't there someone up there?" he asked, pointing to the tower.  
  
She didn't answer, 'Is there someone up there with Dawn?' she telepathically communicated with Spike, the closer of the two vampires.  
  
"Yeah, can't tell who," he said out loud.  
  
"Are you talking to us?" Xander asked.  
  
'Get up there. Go now.'  
  
"Yeah, but-"  
  
'GO!'  
  
Angel saw the intense concentration on Willow's face, then Spike charge at the crazies. He saw out of the corner of his eye Willow and Tara grab hands, and Willow momentarily close her eyes, before the minions and crazies were pushed out of the way by some unseen force.  
  
"I'm gonna go find Buffy," Angel said, before turning to his team, "Help out Giles and Xander." They nodded.  
  
He saw her beating Glory repeatedly with the hammer.  
  
"You're just a mortal. You couldn't understand my pain," Glory rasped, her nose bleeding.  
  
"Then I'll just have to settle for causing it," Buffy said, "You sure like to cause me pain."  
  
"You can't kill me," Glory said as Buffy hit her again. Angel stood back to watch the love of his life in action, ready to step in if she need help.  
  
"No...but my arm's not even tired yet."  
  
Angel heard a soft thud, and saw Spike lying amidst some rubble.  
  
Glory fell to her knees, almost in tears, "Stop it," she half pleaded, half ordered.  
  
"You're a god," Buffy hit her again, and she fell backwards, now lying on the ground, "Make it stop." Buffy knelt on top of her and started punching her. Eventually, Glory morphed into Ben, and she stopped.  
  
"I'm sorry," he rasped.  
  
"Tell her it's over. She missed her shot. She goes. She ever, ever comes near me and mine again..."  
  
"We won't. I swear," Ben said fervently. Buffy dropped the hammer and rushed away. Angel watched her go.  
  
Ben lay there for a moment, breathing heavily, "I guess we're stuck with each other, huh baby?"  
  
"Can you move?" Angel asked, coming over.  
  
"Need a ... a minute. She could've killed me," he breathed.  
  
"No she couldn't. Never. And sooner or later Glory will re-emerge, and...make Buffy pay for that mercy. And the world with her. Buffy even knows that...and still she couldn't take a human life. She's a hero, you see. She's not like us."  
  
"Us?" Ben asked, puzzled.  
  
"This won't be the first life I've snuffed out," Angel said, clasping his hand over Ben's mouth and nose. Ben struggled weakly, but Angel stood motionless, until he could hear his heart no longer beating. "She's not like us," Angel said quietly. He didn't know if Ben was just a mere mortal or not, so he twisted his neck swiftly, making sure. Then he rushed off to where Buffy had gone.  
  
(SCENE CHANGE)  
  
When Buffy got to the top of the tower, a man was standing over her child, holding a big knife.  
  
"Shallow cuts, shallow cuts," she heard him mutter, "Let the blood flow..." Dawn screamed even louder at every stroke of the kinfe on her skin, "free."  
  
"Mu..." Dawn called out weakly, seeing her.  
  
"Dawn."  
  
The man whirled around as Buffy strode towards him. She walked right past him, pushing him off the side as she went.  
  
"Shh, baby, Momma's here. Shh," she said soothingly, as she reached her screaming child. Her cries were weak to Buffy's ears, and she saw blood drip off her toes as she reached to untie her child. "I got you, I'm here, you're gonna be ok. Shh..."  
  
A small circle of light appeared underneath them, growing larger as Buffy untied Dawn, and took her into her arms. She sunk to the floor of the tower, cradling her baby. She had failed. And now everyone would pay for her failure.  
  
Angel knelt before her and gently took Dawn from her. She didn't even fight. She knew that this would be his last chance with his daughter.  
  
Angel carefully ripped off the ceremonial dress that held Dawn, until she was naked except for her diaper. He then carefully started wiping off the blood, and putting it in his own mouth.  
  
"What the hell are you doing?!" Buffy cried, trying to get Dawn back form him.  
  
"Trust me," he said quietly, and she nodded warily as he placed his mouth over the deepest cut and sucked gently. The coppery takes of human blood disgusted him, almost made him want to be sick, but he had to try, even if he didn't know if it would work.  
  
"I-I have to jump," Buffy said suddenly, "It's always the blood. They made her from me..."  
  
"The fall would kill you."  
  
"But she'd live."  
  
He could feel the blood surging inside him, fusing with his own. "No, she's my daughter too. Her blood is now my blood. I can feel it," he passed the child to her mother, "The fall shouldn't kill me. Whatever happens, live. The hardest thing in this world is to do what you do, every day. Live. Live for me, and our daughter."  
  
"Angel, no! I can't lose you again! I-I feel like I'm never going to see you again!" she cried, throwing herself into his arms.  
  
"I'm always in your heart, Buffy. I always will be." He hugged her one last time, knowing nothing is certain with dimensional portals, and then pulled her to her feet, "There's no telling how stable this thing is. Take her down, and get away. It could topple at any moment. I love you, Buffy. I always have." He didn't look at her, didn't want her to see the tears in his eyes as he turned and ran across the platform, and dived off the edge.  
  
"NO!" she screamed, breaking down, "I LOVE YOU!"  
  
He entered the portal, and felt the energy go through him, burning him.  
  
"You are released." He heard from everywhere, yet nowhere, four voices as one, sounding each like a season, and yet nothing, before the energy left him, closing the portal, and he plummeted to the ground. He hit far harder than he had ever imagined, groaning with pain, before rolling over and blacking out.  
  
The tower started shaking as soon as the portal closed, and Buffy stumbled down the ladders, ramps and stairs, clutching Dawn close, barely seeing through her tears. When she reached the bottom, the sun's first rays rested lightly on his body. Buffy ran over, crying hysterically. Tara took the baby from her, beginning the workings of a minor healing spell as she went to support Willow once more. Buffy pounded the body with her weakened fists, sobbing like her heart had been ripped out of her body, before laying her head down on his chest, exhausted, sobbing.  
  
(END OF UPDATE)  
  
Stick around for the epilogue. It's gonna be one sweet ending! 


	16. Epilogue

Divine Interference

Epilogue

Posted: August 10, 2004

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

Author's notes: Sorry this is so short, guys. It's the end, and I really don't think it warrants much more than this. Also, sorry for such a long wait. I meant to have this up by the 7th, but my comptuer's being icky, and I've been working my ass off on my new B/A archive. If anyone would like to donate, or if they would like to sign up to be a beta (we seriously need these) then please check out the site: .

Comments, suggestions and the like are also welcome!

But don't despair about this being the end! I am thinking about a sequel going something like this, and I got this idea from a film I NEVER ever should have watched. Disgusting doesn't even cover it!

Anyway: Ten years or so in the future (to accommodate someone's suggestion of Xander the Babysitter) Dawn is kidnapped for the high-like feeling her blood gives to demons and vampires (can't remember the word).

What do you guys think? It will be way more complex than that, I can assure you, but that's the outline...

Reader Responses:

Melluvben: my lips are sealed....

Quenn Boadicea: lol, most of your reviews make me laugh. That whole blood thing has always confused me too. And like I told Melluvben, I'm not going to comment on the end of the last chapter. Nope. :D As for the ASH love...yeah....He's awesome!

Out-of-reality: and I thought I was obsessed with this story, lol...I'm sorry, and kinda pleased that I made you cry. I like my ending of chapter fifteen. As for anything about Angel or the epilogue, you will just have to read. I'm not making any comments! As for the Cordy bit, I don't know what it is about her, but I've never really liked her either. Must be because she reminds me of all the popular snobs who made fun of me as a kid.

Thanks to Soulful-Spikes-True-Love for reviewing as well!

Here's your update, and your ending, guys! Please tell me what you think!

_**Epilogue**_

Two weeks later, father and daughter were released from the hospital. Dr. Mongrey, a Council representative, had done his job well, and no questions were asked about their admittance situations. She led her family, he in a wheelchair, with their daughter on his lap, to the car.

"I have a surprise for you," she smiled as she helped in into the car, setting the baby in the car seat in the back.

They drove through town, his hand on her upper thigh, and it was all she could do to keep the car on the road.

She pulled into the old part of town, and told him to close his eyes. They pulled to a stop at the end of a long driveway.

She collected the baby from the back, and then helped him inside, careful of his broken ribs. Once inside, she allowed him to open his eyes.

Angel stared in wonder at his old haunt transformed. Light poured through open windows, onto spotless floors. There were simple furniture arrangements in the large front room, but it looked cozy.

"I did the best I could by myself," she said proudly, "Welcome home, Liam O'Connor."

"How-How did you-?"

She smiled up at him secretly, "I have my ways," she reached up tentatively and kissed him softly on the lips, "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you," he returned.

FINIS


End file.
